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Is this a joke? There have to easier ways than physically dropping a string into a rotor. They are radio controlled. A handful of parts from radioshack, or e

Is this a joke? There have to easier ways than physically dropping a string into a rotor. They are radio controlled. A handful of parts from radioshack, or even just an injection-capable wifi dongle, and they will drop from the sky without you leaving the ground.

pervycreeper 12y ago
That strategy almost certainly has a vastly different legal status compared to the original article's.
dexen 12y ago
> A handful of parts from radioshack, or even just an injection-capable wifi dongle, and they will drop from the sky without you leaving the ground. Jamming RC control is not that straightforward, and for good reasons: it's common for several pilots to operate RC-controlled vehicles from single airfield simultaneously, thus RC radios evolved to avoid interference with one another. While modern RC radios indeed usually operate on 2.4GHz band common with WiFi, they typically employ frequency-hopping spread-spectrum communications[1] that has nothing to do with WiFi and is designed with degree of robustness against interference. Secondly, many `drones' (in this context, quad-rotors and multi-rotors) are catable of semi-autonomous operations, such as position holding, following a pre-planned flight path, and automatic return-to-base, as both aide to pilot and a natural protection against losing radio contact with the remote control. To combat those capabilities you would have to jam GPS signal too, and most probably the end result would be drone simply drifting with wind and slowly changing altitude, instead of dropping out of the sky right away. Not to mention jamming nearby neighbours and motorists, and illegality of such jamming [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-controlled_aircraft#Frequencies_and_sub-channels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-controlled_aircraft#Freq... [2] http://www.gps.gov/spectrum/jamming/ http://www.gps.gov/spectrum/jamming/
- andygates 12y ago
  Indeed, my Parrot has a preprogrammed behaviour in case of loss of signal: cease lateral movement and descend to hover until signal is reacquired (or the battery runs low, in which case land). If it were flying waypoints, it'd ignore the jamming as it ignores signal loss - and part of the fun flying waypoints is sending Mr Crashy out of direct control for a short time. Jamming's a fantasy attack just like shotguns are.
- renox 12y ago
  > automatic return-to-base Automatic return to base is an interesting outcome if you want to catch the drone's owner..
classicsnoot 12y ago
Like what? This is a pretty neat way to bring down the target while being able to apprehend the device. A lot of modern RPVs have crash landing software. doesn't keep it air worthy, but it can soften the descent. Also, in terms of splash damage, it is very precise. I imagine ECM attacks would radiate outward in an irresponsible way, causing non-targeted devices to fail. A fun aside: there were a number of secret programs that studied the weaponizing of the Apollo space program, should it come down to a shooting war. Instead of lasers, missiles, or bass cannons, their weapon of choice was black spraypaint. The concept was to approach and rendezvous with the target craft and cover the surface with black paint. After a certain percentage of the craft's surface area is blacked, the life support system in the target aircraft would be incapable of keeping the inhabitants alive. Another parallel could be drawn from the current Sino-Russo-American satellite shadowing that has been developed for the past few years.

pervycreeper 12y ago

That strategy almost certainly has a vastly different legal status compared to the original article's.

dexen 12y ago

> A handful of parts from radioshack, or even just an injection-capable wifi dongle, and they will drop from the sky without you leaving the ground. Jamming RC control is not that straightforward, and for good reasons: it's common for several pilots to operate RC-controlled vehicles from single airfield simultaneously, thus RC radios evolved to avoid interference with one another. While modern RC radios indeed usually operate on 2.4GHz band common with WiFi, they typically employ frequency-hopping spread-spectrum communications[1] that has nothing to do with WiFi and is designed with degree of robustness against interference. Secondly, many `drones' (in this context, quad-rotors and multi-rotors) are catable of semi-autonomous operations, such as position holding, following a pre-planned flight path, and automatic return-to-base, as both aide to pilot and a natural protection against losing radio contact with the remote control. To combat those capabilities you would have to jam GPS signal too, and most probably the end result would be drone simply drifting with wind and slowly changing altitude, instead of dropping out of the sky right away. Not to mention jamming nearby neighbours and motorists, and illegality of such jamming [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-controlled_aircraft#Frequencies_and_sub-channels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-controlled_aircraft#Freq... [2] http://www.gps.gov/spectrum/jamming/ http://www.gps.gov/spectrum/jamming/

andygates 12y ago
Indeed, my Parrot has a preprogrammed behaviour in case of loss of signal: cease lateral movement and descend to hover until signal is reacquired (or the battery runs low, in which case land). If it were flying waypoints, it'd ignore the jamming as it ignores signal loss - and part of the fun flying waypoints is sending Mr Crashy out of direct control for a short time. Jamming's a fantasy attack just like shotguns are.
renox 12y ago
> automatic return-to-base Automatic return to base is an interesting outcome if you want to catch the drone's owner..

classicsnoot 12y ago

Like what? This is a pretty neat way to bring down the target while being able to apprehend the device. A lot of modern RPVs have crash landing software. doesn't keep it air worthy, but it can soften the descent. Also, in terms of splash damage, it is very precise. I imagine ECM attacks would radiate outward in an irresponsible way, causing non-targeted devices to fail. A fun aside: there were a number of secret programs that studied the weaponizing of the Apollo space program, should it come down to a shooting war. Instead of lasers, missiles, or bass cannons, their weapon of choice was black spraypaint. The concept was to approach and rendezvous with the target craft and cover the surface with black paint. After a certain percentage of the craft's surface area is blacked, the life support system in the target aircraft would be incapable of keeping the inhabitants alive. Another parallel could be drawn from the current Sino-Russo-American satellite shadowing that has been developed for the past few years.