Tokyo to Catch Bad Drones Using Bigger Drones with Giants Nets

dronecatcherhead

Tokyo’s police force has come up with a clever solution for dealing with rogue drones: they’re going to catch them using larger drones and giant nets.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department announced yesterday that the goal of the crime-fighting drones is to defend important locations with “the worst-case scenario in mind.” It’s not just the use of camera drones to spy on sensitive locations that authorities are concerned about, but things like terrorist drones rigged with explosives.

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The new drone-catcher drones will be deployed if any drone is flown into restricted airspace and doesn’t leave after police warnings. A 2×3 meter (~6.5×10 foot) net will hang from the bottom of the 6-propeller drone (apparently the $1,400 DJI Spreading Wings 900) and will be flown directly into the offending drones, entangling them and taking them out of the sky.

Here’s a video demonstration of the anti-drone drone in action:

10 of these special drones will be flown by trained drone hunting officers, and will deployed around the city by February 2016.

(via Nikkei via Engadget)

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