Really, really stupid idea of the month, maybe the whole year!- - Drone attack Eagles! - Blogs

George Kelly February 2, 2016 at 10:21am

It's just an interesting thought experiment.

High tech systems, deployed by humans, have a tendency to go wrong. And presumably, if a drone needs to be brought down, the stakes may be very high.

If I were responsible for planning such a response, I'd probably want as many independent, redundant approaches available as feasible.

Pointing a focused beam from the ground (or a gun, for that matter), is probably the best candidate for a primary system.

But it's not foolproof, of course. Just off the top of my head - what happens to a laser-dependent approach if the nefarious party has shielded the electronics with, say, a mirrored, hemispherical dome covering the bottom of the central frame? I don't know, of course. I'd be reluctant to bet my life on a predictable outcome.

Or the GPS has been shielded by a well-designed ground plane against EMF coming up from below?

Or, the operator indeed loses control of the drone, but the authorities don't possess control, either, and the payload is dangerous and 'running loose'?

Or the drone is flying fast, in a built-up area, and the authorities have a couple of seconds before it disappears behind buildings/a forest/hills/cross-country...

An eagle would laugh off the operator's attempts to evade. :) Much more so than ground-based humans.

It needn't be any kind of kamikaze mission. Fly over top, repeatedly, with detachable 'danglers'. Something any bird of prey would handle with ease, in theory.

Now, on the other hand - it seems to be very hard-wired for them to actually physically attack flying objects. They seem to even enjoy it. So can they even be trained to not attack - just fly overhead?

I have no idea.

George

Tony K February 2, 2016 at 9:39am

Ok sure but your asking so much from an eagle. It would be so much easier to emmit high power EMF with high gain antenna or laser and if u dont bring it down your going to make it un responsive from the user end. It takes no training and no possible kamikaze eagle missions. thats my point anyway. for that reason i think its still a bad idea because there are options that are more practical.

George Kelly February 2, 2016 at 9:35am

Sure, Tony. I'm not advocating 'direct attack' on the drone by the bird.

But what can the flight controller do if the drone is suddenly blanketed from above by say, 8 or 10 lengths of aircraft cable that have been pulled into the props/motors?

I fly a pretty powerful X8, 18 inch CF props, too, but I wouldn't want to test that scenario.

George

Tony K February 2, 2016 at 9:26am

@ George K

When a drones flight is interrupted (accelerometers reading any shift ) it will try to compensate. My drone has soo much power sometimes i feel like it can lift me. I cant imagine what could happen if an eagle tries to get anywhere near my drone with so much power and such large props. Keep in mind the stabilization closed loop system too it will be a fight between drone and eagle that will most likely be bad for the eagle.

George Kelly February 2, 2016 at 9:23am

Sorry, another attempt to embed (my first) video:

YouTube

George Kelly February 2, 2016 at 9:21am

Ok, sometimes I can't resist playing the contrarian (especially on a slow day).

I don't approve, but:

Birds of prey have enormously more acute visual systems, in both space and time, than us humans.

I wouldn't rule out at all that they can 'see' the props to a degree we can't imagine.

I suspect the concept actually has some potential if they take the approach of keeping the bird well above the drone and dangling a cable or cables into the props - cables designed to break away from the bird (or a harness on the bird) when they're yanked.

In terms of the capacity to be deployed on short notice, position themselves above any given drone, and easily keep themselves there, nothing man-made is going to come close to an eagle anytime soon

(there's a bit of footage of a real-life takedown of a drone by a hawk at the 15:15 point of this video, for those who haven't seen it"

(or here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4EE7Vv_RdM)

Again, not if the bird is going to get hurt.

George

YouTube

Tony K February 2, 2016 at 9:13am

there are so many more humane and feasible ways to take down drones...I believe they chose eagles because they are already used to reduce bird population around airports but this decision was def made by someone who does not understand what type of drones are available. My drone will kill that eagle on contact. 15 inch props CF 4000 RPM are deadly.

Rob_Lefebvre February 2, 2016 at 8:50am

How does the eagle not get it's feet cut off.

I once had a (wild) hawk go after one of my helis, pulled away at the last second. Lucky for him, that would not have ended well.

Doug Walmsley February 2, 2016 at 8:43am

Terrible idea. Harming a beautiful bird for what purpose, paranoia that someone is watching you? Shame on humanity!

Rainer K. February 2, 2016 at 8:01am

always the toys of DJI.
what is reported in the media would then swarms of drones to people flying around the heads.
Here in Germany near a big city I've never seen a flying drone.

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