Rogue drones flown by nefarious pilots have the potential to cause all sorts of problems. In the US, there have been hundreds of close encounters between airplanes and drones which has prompted action from regulators. In Japan, authorities are taking a more hands-on approach.
Following a security scare earlier this year involving a drone, Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department has developed a drone designed to incapacitate other drones flying in unauthorized airspace in the capital city of Tokyo. How so? By scooping up the rogue drone in a large net, of course.
A senior member of the police department's Security Bureau told The Asahi Shimbun that terrorist attacks using drones carrying explosives are a possibility. The hope is that the drone will allow them to defend the nation's functions with the worst-case scenario in mind.
The police force will initially maintain just a single defense drone which will have a three-meter by two-meter net hanging from the bottom. In the event that a drone enters restricted airspace and doesn't comply with police warnings, the drone will be deployed with hopes that the net will render the rogue drone useless.
As seen in the video above, the net gets tangled up in the rogue drone's propellers. This effectively disabled the drone while preventing it from falling out of the sky and potentially injuring people on the ground. It seems silly but if the threat can be eliminated without harming anyone, I don't see why police forces in other countries wouldn't adopt a similar method to fight rogue drones.