A Japanese protester flew a quadcopter with a symbolic amount of soil from the contaminated Fukushima region onto the roof of the Prime Minister’s office in April. Although it was a gesture, it alerted the Tokyo police department to the potential need to be able to pull drones out of the air.
Simply shooting them down won’t do — think of the innocent bystanders on the ground subjected to a rain of quadcopter parts. The Tokyo police’s solution: catch them in a net, flown by another quadcopter, of course.
We can’t embed it here, but go click through to the video. It looks like the police are having a really good time. How long before we see drone-net sets under the Christmas tree, or quadcopter-tag leagues? We’re uncertain of how far the Battlebots in the Sky movement got.
We have no shortage of yahoos driving quadcopters in the States, of course. From interfering with fire-fighting aircraft to simply flying too close to commercial airplanes, people are doing things that they simply shouldn’t. We’ve been covering the US government’s response that finally culminated in the FAA making rules requiring medium-weight drones to be registered. Watch our front page for more on that next week. Fly safe, folks.
[via The Verge]
here’s a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbjcQTm-6Vg
http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Net-Gun/
“flown by another quadcopter, of course”
pretty loose terminology here.
Hahaha it is only a quadcopter if it has 4-rotors. Video clip shows a six rotor radio controlled aircraft carrying the net. May want to revise that.
oh japan… gotta catch ’em all! ;P
+1!!! Best comment on the story by far!
Quadnetter, I choose you!
Apparently, they can only catch very slow and cooperative quadcopters with exposed rotors. A fast-moving quadcopter with rotor guards and no pointy bits won’t get caught in the net quite so easily.
The obvious thing to do, of course, is to build a LARGER multirotor craft with rotor guards and some hooks on the bottom to catch theirs, lifting it by their own net.
Or just use a small, fast quadcopter with rotor guards to flip the net over their craft; they have neglected to shield their own rotors.
Hmm, a better way to fight a war?
Fly a swarm of them, a murmuration of quadcopters. Works for starlings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1Q-EbX6dso
OK I admit it. That was just an excuse to post the video.
Actually seeing the starlings roosted on the power lines…. sorta makes you wonder how hard it would be to build a nano quad with some sort of insulated docking mechanism that could recharge via induction. I’m sure people would love that :P
That’s actually a thing: http://hackaday.com/2010/06/28/cameras-perch-on-power-lines-steal-electricity/
It’s such a shame that there are so few of them left now.
Come borrow some from America! They’re an invasive species, introduced deliberately, to the detriment of native species.
Exactly, have they not seen the speed at which the some quads can fly at? I watched a video where the passenger of a car was flying a 280 size quad through FPV video goggles along with the car, they got to 55 mph and it had no trouble keeping up. Search for “FPV Drone Racing from Moving Car”
I highly doubt that big drone with the net could catch up and stop a quad doing 55mph!
What happens when someone comes along with a bigger drone carrying a bigger net?
and this is how the multirotor arms race in Japan starts
Or a shotgun! ;-)
Net gun?
I was wondering if anyone had figured out the obvious problem with this.
They constructed a quad with a net under it, but they won’t stop there.
They’ll construct bigger quads with bigger nets, and then they’ll construct a quad with a net under it so large, it will destroy them all…
Build a larger net to catch police copters for free.
Just wait for governments declaring fishnets illegal.
this could easily turn into a very entertaining “arms” race.
Build a small but really powerful drone that can lure the Police one, then drag it away somewhere to be recovered.
Maybe have one that uses micro gas turbines maybe a flying Harrier jet model.
Of course then you also have the option to just out run it.
This is long overdue, I keep imagining how easy it would be to strap a bomb onto a drone. Got screwed over on your mortgage? You’ve got an easy delivery method to any top office floor or penthouse suite…
Most drones do not have enough payload to carry useful bomb load. the most you’d do is put a hole in the roof and make someone wish they wore their brown pants that day.
True.
But able to carry some small piece of radio active material and leave it on the roof of somewhere important.
We’re just waiting for that to happen…
Barrage nets? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrage_balloon#First_World_War). Actually just opening up a microwave oven and pointing the noise at the Rx in the copter would probably do it (don’t forget eye protection).
Surface-to-Air Nerf missiles
Ejected lengths of tough string or fine piano wire. Once that hits the rotors from above it’s game over. Not a continuous length or you may get reeled in like a fish.
Good idea! String is probably the best, as it would be relatively safe to bystanders.
Fly spray? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3qUKhqXG1c
Ah hahahaha, it looked good but didn’t do much, a spraying water would have been more effective.
Submitted (from actual source) when it was actually news, oh well.
I don’t get why people do stupid thing with expensive drones. The ones out bouncing off skyscrapers, landing on the white house lawn and peeping on people cost anywhere from $800 to $2000. I personally refuse to do anything asinine with my money like this. I guess I just respect the rules, or maybe it’s that I understand the value of money. My phantom stays away from people, houses and I have kissed the sky a few times out in the country but far from any aircraft. You have to do it at least once. The view is amazing. But I did the right thing and joined the AMA, and now I only go to about 400ft.
There are people for which 800 or 2000 is just pocket money. And there are state agencies spending “not-their-own” (our) money
Flying spider with portable webs! It’s now REAL!