Part Racing Drone, Part RC Airplane, Part Rocket…all Menace. How else could you describe a quadcopter that shoots off at high speed and is designed for taking down other small quadcopters? The Interceptor Drone by [Aleksey] borrows elements from all of the aforementioned disciplines of flying things.
Built with standard racing drone parts, [Aleksey] assures that no prohibited parts are used in its construction. Instead, the Interceptor Drone relies on a very powerful motors and a light weight frame to keep the power to weight ratio in the “rocketing into the sky” category.
But what Interceptor Drone would be complete without a way to take its target out of the sky? This is where the biggest divergences begin. The motors are all oriented to point away from the center-line of the craft. Upon command, these motors actually detach from the frame, each spreading out and deploying the corner of a net that’s designed to entangle the rotors of the target, causing its battle with gravity to come to a grinding halt.
How does the Interceptor Drone survive the attack? Without its motors, the core of the quadcopter falls to the earth. Arresting the fall is a parachute much like those used in model rocketry. An audio beacon sounds the alarm to help somebody to find it — a move taken straight from the RC aircraft hobby.
There’s certainly a lot of room to discuss legalities in localities, but regardless of opinion about the craft’s intended use, the system looks very slick, and there are some great hacks baked right in. Don’t want to build a drone-killing-drone? Maybe all you need is a pumpkin and good (bad?) timing.
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