REAL LIFE NEWS: USE A NET TO CATCH DRONES
by Hazed
A few weeks ago I told you about a bizarre scheme to use birds of prey to take down rogue drones. [LINK] Now a British firm has come up with a much more sensible drone-buster: a net fired from a cannon.
It’s called the SkyWall100 and it is described as "a combination of a compressed gas powered smart launcher and an intelligent programmable projectile." The hand-held cannon, which weighs 10kg, comes with a "Laser-Equipped SmartScope" and onboard computer "to calculate the launch vector and muzzle velocity required to intercept the drone" to a range of 100 metres. You can watch a video of the SkyWall100 in action at the source link below.
The company, OpenWorks Engineering, is also developing a larger version which is mounted on a tripod and operated by two people, as well as a cannon which can be permanently installed and should operate semi-autonomously, whatever that means!
Given how often we hear stories of drones near airports having near misses with planes, something clearly needs to be done. We’ll have to wait and see whether the SkyWall100 is the solution.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/04/drone_busting_net_cannon/
