I agree with earthsciteach but i dont know if i made the right decision on starting this thread i dont want to start fight here
Hey...don't worry about it...lol...
No use getting your shorts all in a twist...
I've started threads, or posted things...that I wish I had waited to ponder a bit more...
But heck...sometimes it's good to engage in some vigorous debate.
I've tried to be the devils advocate in all this because...well...I think we are all suffering from FAA registration fatigue.
We're all beginning to feel a little like Davy Crockett at the Alamo.
But, I don't want anger from those emotions to rub off on people who are not the problem.
It's the idiot's flying recklessly!!!!!!...They are the problem!!!!!!
Now...onto more devil's advocacy...lol...
It certainly is not a practical solution to stopping the "dangerous drones" flying over crowds, dropping items into prison yards or flying near airports.
Especially if it disables the UAV causing it to plummet into the crowd...where as if the UAV was left alone it would not have.
This is making our hobby look even worse. Is every park going to have a "patrol drone" that'll have a pilot on standby 24/7? Even if they do make this system autonomous, I don't think that it'll be economically feasible to equip every public area with one of these. Not to mention what might happen if the autonomous control system goes bonkers...
A lot of assumptions are being thrown around on how these will be used...or "carelessly used" by law enforcement..."plummeting into crowds", etc. And no, every park is not going to have a park policeman staged with his drone at the ready 24-7.
Sometimes entrepreneur's get a vision...and in the pursuit of that vision, they put on a pair of blinders.
I think the video showed that this product is far from ready for primetime. Until this product uses "real-time video target recognition and aiming" while flying under "fully-autonomous autopilot"...it is largely useless as a drone hunter. And secondly, although drones are multiplying...the "bad drone incidents" are way too few in number for any law enforcement department to consider purchasing this product for the "sole purpose of hunting bad drones".
However, as the product sits today...I can definitely see some use cases in its current form...no changes necessary.
For instance, during flash floods or boating accidents in flood swollen rivers, people often get stranded on small islands...or even on top of their cars. I could see this rescue drone fly out and shoot the net over the individual...not so much for capture, but make it easy to catch. The net would be attached to a line to shore that's stout enough that would allow the victim to at least pull over a life jacket. Trying to catch a single line tossed from shore may be problematic, especially when one is perched on the top of one's car. Also, real helicopters are inherently dangerous in rescue missions. They give off a lot of prop wash, and may be useless in areas of rough terrain with lots of trees.
The small rescue copter may also be used just to get a line over the river...leading to a larger line, and a larger line...and finally a rowboat could use that larger line to move across...and make the rescue.
Out in the wilderness for search and rescue operations, the rescue copter could be used in a similar manner. We're talking about not only locating the individual, but also getting close and shooting a net over him. The net is attached to a short line with a "cellphone/gps radio beacon" wrapped in bubble wrap. Thus, if the individual is incapacitated with a broken leg he doesn't even have to move to reel in the cell phone, and make contact. The rougher and steeper the terrain, the more useful this delivery system becomes.
Another use case is in wide-spread flooding, both inland and after hurricanes. People out on open roof's, or waving through open windows could be located. The copter could shoot the cell phone/gps radio locator, as well as extra batteries onto the roof, or through the open top story window. At a mission control center a Google Earth Map would have a dot indicating the location of each stranded party. For those needing daily meds(like insulin), the copter could also deliver these in the net/bubble wrap package. I'd envision this as being more of a FEMA type sales opportunity.
Ultimately, these systems must be multipurpose. No law enforcement/emergency/or fire agency is going to buy a bunch of disparate systems. There must be a universal attachment mechanism on the bottom to attach: visible light as well as infra red cameras, the pneumatic net throwing systems, and possible systems to throw the aforementioned taser net or tranquilizing dart.
Having a single delivery platform means the pilot only has to learn to fly one FPV/Autopilot craft. There would be an alternate tablet PC for the person operating the attached payload: being either the visible light camera, the IR camera, and the pnuematic gun complete with auto tracking of target capabilities to shoot a net package, taser net, or tranquilizing dart.
Besides the copter solution, Theiss is apparently working on a hybrid airframe to be like a combination airplane, for speed, and copter, for hover capability. This would be neat to follow.
Again, I can't emphasize enough that having three sister companies involved in plastics presents a huge opportunity for these guys to go in and pick some brains. Just what is possible from an injection molding perspective. What kind of capital expenditures would it take? Today, everyone and his brother can go out and get a CNC router to cut quad kits from carbon or G10 sheet. But getting a phantom type body, or larger, injected molded...that's a whole different story.
What baffles me is that Theiss, a commercial UAV company, spent time and money developing this net gun that has NO market. It certainly would not be an item to sell to the hobby market.
Are you kidding me!!! I fully expect Peter to have a combat wing of a half dozen or so Kraken's to run sorties during FliteFest combats. They just have to get the net reloading down to a science, so they can go up, shoot, and land...as many times as possible.
