
Rapere Intercept Drone - pavel_lishin
http://rapere.io/
======
DanAndersen
I wonder if projects like this will trigger the development of drone
countermeasures, leading to an interesting arms race and regular battles in
the skies above us.

~~~
vmarsy
If you're legally allowed to destroy a drone on your property, then instead of
using another drone why not just use a shotgun?

Right now you can't :
[http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/10/03/new_jerse...](http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/10/03/new_jersey_man_shoots_down_drone_over_his_property_gets_arrested.html)

~~~
klinquist
The issue is that there is no defined elevation above land you own that is
designated part of your property.

~~~
gradys
My understanding (from an undergraduate US law class) is that you actually own
the column defined by your property lines up into the heavens (and down into
the Earth). You implicitly grant an easement (a formalized privilege allowing
someone else do something with your property) to aircraft and other things
like that. I imagine that this easement doesn't extend to drones doing
something they're not supposed to.

~~~
rgbrenner
Slate: How much of the airspace above your home do you own?
[http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/20...](http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2013/07/photographer_george_steinmetz_arrest_how_much_airspace_do_you_own.html)

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downandout
Destruction of property is destruction of property. The logic behind this
seems to imply that you could legally take steps to crash a manned helicopter
merely because it was flying over your property. That is almost certainly not
the case.

Another example: Some of the wealthiest people in California live on a street
called La Jolla Farms Rd. (supermarket magnate Ron Burkle owns a 58,000 sq ft
home there). One of the hallmarks of living on this street is that hang and
paragliders taking off from the La Jolla Gliderport fly over these homes
constantly during the day - many with cameras. Would it be legal to take any
of them down? My guess is you would be charged with attempted murder.

~~~
cge
Hot air balloons frequently fly over Rancho Santa Fe nearby, as well. Local
ordinances are such that most if not all of them are doing so illegally, if I
recall correctly, but that still doesn't mean shooting them down would be
legal.

~~~
niels_olson
Private property owners generally only have airspace rights in so far as
"enjoyment". That, is they can shoot fireworks, have balloons, loft their own
drones, etc.

Unless a pilot of an aircaft (including balloons, etc) is somehow being
intentionally disruptive (e.g., hovering their helicopter over an ex-
girlfriend's birthday party), they have a higher obligation to safe flight.
And if that means overflying Coral Reef Ranch, Gwendolyn Sontheim Meyer's show
ponies are just going to have to deal with it.

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sandworm
Is this a joke? There have to easier ways than physically dropping a string
into a rotor.

They are radio controlled. A handful of parts from radioshack, or even just an
injection-capable wifi dongle, and they will drop from the sky without you
leaving the ground.

~~~
dexen
_> A handful of parts from radioshack, or even just an injection-capable wifi
dongle, and they will drop from the sky without you leaving the ground._

Jamming RC control is not that straightforward, and for good reasons: it's
common for several pilots to operate RC-controlled vehicles from single
airfield simultaneously, thus RC radios evolved to avoid interference with one
another.

While modern RC radios indeed usually operate on 2.4GHz band common with WiFi,
they typically employ frequency-hopping spread-spectrum communications[1] that
has nothing to do with WiFi and is designed with degree of robustness against
interference.

Secondly, many `drones' (in this context, quad-rotors and multi-rotors) are
catable of semi-autonomous operations, such as position holding, following a
pre-planned flight path, and automatic return-to-base, as both aide to pilot
and a natural protection against losing radio contact with the remote control.

To combat those capabilities you would have to jam GPS signal too, and most
probably the end result would be drone simply drifting with wind and slowly
changing altitude, instead of dropping out of the sky right away. Not to
mention jamming nearby neighbours and motorists, and illegality of such
jamming [2].

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-
controlled_aircraft#Freq...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-
controlled_aircraft#Frequencies_and_sub-channels)

[2]
[http://www.gps.gov/spectrum/jamming/](http://www.gps.gov/spectrum/jamming/)

~~~
andygates
Indeed, my Parrot has a preprogrammed behaviour in case of loss of signal:
cease lateral movement and descend to hover until signal is reacquired (or the
battery runs low, in which case land). If it were flying waypoints, it'd
ignore the jamming as it ignores signal loss - and part of the fun flying
waypoints is sending Mr Crashy out of direct control for a short time.

Jamming's a fantasy attack just like shotguns are.

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wavefunction
I thought about making an anti-drone drone that would basically fly in front
of another drone and release a fine spray of some sort of air-hardening resin
which should foul control surfaces and mechanical parts.

Haven't done it yet.

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bdg
I'm curious if a microwave's magnetron strapped to the pursuit drone could act
as a poor man's Active Denial System and fry the other drone.

~~~
gvb
Serious practical problems:

1\. Weight of the magetron, battery, and power supply to power the magnetron.

2\. Shielding required on the aggressor drone to prevent it from frying
itself.

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pronoiac
Whoa, that's an unfortunate name.

~~~
oldmanjay
That's the same strange attitude that got a man fired from DC gov't for using
the word "niggardly."

If your sensitivity is such that you can't handle similarities in word sounds
I recommend you lock yourself indoors cause it's a tough world out there.

~~~
pronoiac
To be perfectly clear, I did a double-take because I mis-read it the first
time, I'm probably not alone on this, and I'd consider it an ill-advised name.

You could consider me oversensitive, but would you choose Niggardly for a
brand name?

~~~
classicsnoot
Niggard Systems: a company devoted to conserving capital resources through a
proactive approach towards analytics and trends in money markets.

