Boing Boing Staging

Drone-catching drone portends coming drone arms race

Airspace Systems Inc One Touch Interceptor TI

This drone-catching drone video from Airspace Systems suggests that drones and counter-drones will soon be filling the skies. Drone deliveries will be skyjacked by robber drones, then cops and private loss prevention firms will use drones to catch those drones (and probably target all kinds of benign drones).

Via a profile on TechCrunch:

Once the craft got good at identifying and predicting the bearing of other high-speed drones, the next challenge was to empower the good drones to take action. This meant creating a Kevlar net that fires from the underbelly of an Airspace drone using technology reminiscent of automobile airbags. The team experimented with a variety of approaches to disable opposing drones without permanently damaging them. Kevlar netting, structurally designed not to blow backwards when deployed, turned out to be the best option. Once attached, the heavy-duty Interceptor drone can lift the now disabled threat away to a safe location. In the off-chance that it cannot manage the catch and starts to behave erratically, the craft has an on-board parachute to allow for a decent and soft landing.

More on the Airspace Systems website.

Airspace Systems Inc One Touch Interceptor TI (YouTube / Jaz Banga via TechCrunch)

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