The drone rules put in place by the FAA are not stopping drone pilots from flying into no fly zones or into private areas. The drone detection system at the Citi Fields stadium, home of the Mets, encounters on average two drones entering the stadium's air space. The Mets use the Dedrone drone defense system we reported about earlier this year.
Dedrone jams the frequencies of approaching drones and triggers the drone's automatic fly home fail safe system. The blocking of drones is not enough for the management of the Mets.
Drones are "an obvious threat, whether it’s a major threat now or in a year or two years," said Farzam Kamel, who runs SterlingVC, part of Sterling Equities, owner of the Mets. "You want to detect every drone. You want to be able to take down every drone," he said to The Information, with minimal collateral damage.
SterlingVC has invested into Airspace Systems Inc. The startup develops a drone called Interceptor that catches drones in a net and flies them away. The Interceptor works completely autonomous. You push a button and the interceptor hunts down the bad drone and throws a kevlar net at it. Watch the video below to see this cool way of catching a drone in action.
The advantage of this method of hunting drones is to be able to carry it quickly away in case its payload is dangerous. Drones could be used for terror attacks when loaded with explosives or chemicals.
The Interceptor uses AI algorithms that are fed with information from a set of cameras, laser radar and ultrasonic sensors to hunt drones.
Airspace Systems raised $5 million and developed the Interceptor in secret since last year. It is not clear yet when the Interceptor goes on duty as there is a federal law that prohibits the endangerment of any aircraft. There need to be new regulations to protect against drones. Maybe we soon see patrolling Interceptor drones operated by the police.
