DIY gun turret takes down mini-drones

A technology-enthusiast has invented a Nerf gun turret that can automatically track and shoot down small drones. The ingenious contraption uses the Lidar capabilities of a Kinect v2 sensor, and a milled steel two-axis gimbal, all controlled by software based on the OpenCV AI library, which is geared towards realtime computer vision.

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Tau.Neutrino said:

DIY gun turret takes down mini-drones

A technology-enthusiast has invented a Nerf gun turret that can automatically track and shoot down small drones. The ingenious contraption uses the Lidar capabilities of a Kinect v2 sensor, and a milled steel two-axis gimbal, all controlled by software based on the OpenCV AI library, which is geared towards realtime computer vision.

more…

seen target acquisition systems on paintball guns working, fast as, impressive.

transition said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

DIY gun turret takes down mini-drones

A technology-enthusiast has invented a Nerf gun turret that can automatically track and shoot down small drones. The ingenious contraption uses the Lidar capabilities of a Kinect v2 sensor, and a milled steel two-axis gimbal, all controlled by software based on the OpenCV AI library, which is geared towards realtime computer vision.

more…

seen target acquisition systems on mounted paintball guns working, fast as, impressive.

Tau.Neutrino said:

DIY gun turret takes down mini-drones

A technology-enthusiast has invented a Nerf gun turret that can automatically track and shoot down small drones. The ingenious contraption uses the Lidar capabilities of a Kinect v2 sensor, and a milled steel two-axis gimbal, all controlled by software based on the OpenCV AI library, which is geared towards realtime computer vision.

more…

There’s a sensor with Lidar capabilities?

I wouldn’t want to let it loose in a room indoors without that white backcloth.

I think i could improve the tracking algorithm by aiming towards where the drone is heading rather than towards where the drone is.

I think i could do the machine vision without Lidar, too.

Tau.Neutrino said:

DIY gun turret takes down mini-drones

A technology-enthusiast has invented a Nerf gun turret that can automatically track and shoot down small drones. The ingenious contraption uses the Lidar capabilities of a Kinect v2 sensor, and a milled steel two-axis gimbal, all controlled by software based on the OpenCV AI library, which is geared towards realtime computer vision.

more…

So has he really invented anything, if he has used off-the-shelf components?

true, there is no innovation in mathematics, only established rules

party_pants said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

DIY gun turret takes down mini-drones

A technology-enthusiast has invented a Nerf gun turret that can automatically track and shoot down small drones. The ingenious contraption uses the Lidar capabilities of a Kinect v2 sensor, and a milled steel two-axis gimbal, all controlled by software based on the OpenCV AI library, which is geared towards realtime computer vision.

more…

So has he really invented anything, if he has used off-the-shelf components?

He has done a lot of custom programming

and some custom engineering of components

not really off the shelve, maybe some bits were.

Tau.Neutrino said:

party_pants said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

DIY gun turret takes down mini-drones

A technology-enthusiast has invented a Nerf gun turret that can automatically track and shoot down small drones. The ingenious contraption uses the Lidar capabilities of a Kinect v2 sensor, and a milled steel two-axis gimbal, all controlled by software based on the OpenCV AI library, which is geared towards realtime computer vision.

more…

So has he really invented anything, if he has used off-the-shelf components?

He has done a lot of custom programming

and some custom engineering of components

not really off the shelve, maybe some bits were.

I vaguely remember someone who made a guided missile using off the shelf components which cost a fraction of a normal missile

party_pants said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

DIY gun turret takes down mini-drones

A technology-enthusiast has invented a Nerf gun turret that can automatically track and shoot down small drones. The ingenious contraption uses the Lidar capabilities of a Kinect v2 sensor, and a milled steel two-axis gimbal, all controlled by software based on the OpenCV AI library, which is geared towards realtime computer vision.

more…

So has he really invented anything, if he has used off-the-shelf components?

Doesn’t matter. As he said, 90% of the effort was to get those off-the-shelf components to talk to one another, given that they were built to incompatible standards.

PS. The variable speed windscreen wiper was built with off-the-shelf components as well, yet it was patentable.

Thinking further about the main problem. Much of the problem in shooting down drones has to be range. In this case it’s solved by having the drone a constant distance from the gun.

Another way to solve it would be by knowing the physical size of the drone in advance.

For machine vision. Subtract consecutive frames from each other to ignore everything that doesn’t move. Depending on the algorithm you can then shoot it down when it stops moving, moves at constant velocity, or moves at constant acceleration. That’s better than how he does it.

Cymek said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

party_pants said:

So has he really invented anything, if he has used off-the-shelf components?

He has done a lot of custom programming

and some custom engineering of components

not really off the shelve, maybe some bits were.

I vaguely remember someone who made a guided missile using off the shelf components which cost a fraction of a normal missile

Yes, lots of things can be bought off the shelve.

hopefully the drones won’t be programmed to zig zag in random movements towards a target

small drones would be the hardest of all to shoot down, they could act in a stealthy way, flying low, landing somewhere and reactivating at random intervals to attack a target (they have a small solar cell so they can slowly recharge during the day after flying from some other spot), they could coordinate to attack from different directions, be programmed to attack people within a particular zone, when they explode near someone the explosive blows the body and brains everywhere to create shrapnel. by flying low they would evade most systems. the drones would create decoy attacks to make the target focus on drones further away without picking up drones flying in much closer.