Drones

Tokyo police use flying net to capture illicit UAVs

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is using multicopters equipped with large nets to catch in mid-air unauthorised unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that may threaten public safety, a video posted by the NowThisFuture popular science media organisation demonstrated.

The video posted on the organisation's Facebook page shows a six-rotored UAV, similar to an MK Hexacopter, of the Tokyo police dragging a large net beneath it. The police UAV is flown over the flight path of the illicit UAV, capturing it in the net before returning it to the ground.

As noted by NowThisFuture, this innovation has been developed in response to a number of recent incidents in which small, remotely controlled (RC) aircraft have breached security around national landmarks and other sensitive sites. Specifically, the video referenced incursions over the prime minister's office and Imperial Palace, as well as an incident in April in which a UAV carrying radioactive soil from near the Fukushima nuclear power station was landed onto the prime minister's roof.