Drone Tech - "RIOT" Control

I have been a big fan of drones since my childhood and the idea of robots being commanded by human has fascinated me from the time I used to watch “Robotech” – an animated series from the early 90s. Over the past few years, I have been really enthused by various proponents of drone technology taking about drones becoming a part of our way of life whether it comes to common activities like using drones for deliveries or advance military application where drones can be used for border patrolling.

Personally, if you ask me I believe that with the advancement of AI and drone’s physical capabilities increasing exponentially every nine months, I see a time not far away where drones run fully autonomously impacting all spheres of our lives.

Recently I was very pained to see that during the violent protests that rocked the national capital led to the needless damage done to public property with zero accountability being established on the individuals responsible for such vandalism. From past experience, I can say that at the end of all this chaos in most cases the perpetrators are never caught owing to their identities not being established or even if they are they remain free owing lack of evidence against them. In most cases, our valiant police forces have to depend on eye witness accounts which are most of the time sketchy or difficult to come by. Overall the government has to replace these public assets with new ones using the taxes paid by us which could otherwise have been used for other developmental purposes.

In such a situation I see drones coming to the aid with their application as a “RIOT Control” tool.

In the near future, if a riot breaks out a drone or a set of drones equipped with HD cameras can be deployed over the site, an operator sitting in the “Police Control Room” will be able to capture high definition video and images of the perpetrators and using facial recognition establish their identities. This way the police will have air-tight cases owing to the footage and evidence provided by drones against the perpetrators and they can be held accountable for the damage they have caused to the public exchequer and the relevant recoveries can be made from them.

Additionally, the same drones can be equipped with non-lethal ink discharging ordnance which will spray the perpetrators with phosphoric ink or dye which whose semi-permanent properties will again help the police identify the perpetrators of such crimes and bring them to justice recovering the damage they have caused. Another practical use of the same drones can be to drowse fires using fire extinguishing balls such as those from Afo https://www.afofireballs.in/ to tackle fires in riot zones where fire tenders cannot reach immediately.

Cost-wise a commercial drone equipped with a high definition camera can be procured anywhere between INR 5000 to INR 25000 depending on the capability needed. The same can be retrofitted with an Afo fireball costing INR 1000 weighing about 1.5 KGs which would cover a 360-degree angle with an effective area of about 70 to 80 sq. ft capable of extinguishing all three classes of fire bring Solid, Liquid and Electrical.

This is definitely a worthwhile investment which our police force and the government should consider making so that these drones can act as a deterrent for all rioters in the future.