Vortex Cannon vs Drone

Mark Rober
20 Apr 202420:44

Summary

TLDRThe video script details a fascinating exploration into the world of drone defense technology. It introduces an engineering marvel, a heavy-duty drone designed to neutralize malicious drones by physical impact. The discussion covers various anti-drone methods, including jamming, hacking, high-powered lasers, microwave beams, and nets, highlighting their limitations. The video then shifts to the innovative solutions by Anduril, featuring their autonomous drone, Anvil, which uses kinetic energy to destroy threat drones. The company's sophisticated detection system, Lattice, is also introduced. The narrative further evolves into a backyard engineering competition where creators devise unique methods to counter drones, including a dart turret, a Tesla coil, and an electric goo gun. The video concludes with a drone defense derby, where a tracking drone successfully eliminates a target, showcasing the potential of DIY engineering solutions.

Takeaways

  • 🛡️ A company named Anduril is leading the way in drone defense technology, developing systems to counteract malicious drone use.
  • 🤖 Anduril's founder, Palmer Luckey, invented the Oculus VR headset and is now focusing on protecting airspace from drone threats.
  • 🚫 Traditional methods of drone interception, such as jamming and hacking, have significant flaws and can be easily bypassed by using different frequencies or drone brands.
  • 🔥 High powered lasers and EMP-like microwave beams can disable drones but are less effective against metal or shielded targets.
  • 🕸 Anduril uses a system called Lattice, which combines radar, optical cameras, and IR detectors with AI for precise detection and tracking of drones.
  • 🏎️ Anvil, a fast drone developed by Anduril, is designed to physically destroy threat drones through kinetic energy.
  • 💰 Anduril's approach is cost-effective, with systems like Roadrunner being a fraction of the cost of traditional missile defense.
  • 🏆 A backyard engineering competition showcased DIY drone defense ideas, including a mega turret, an electrified squirt gun, a vortex cannon, and an autonomous tracking system.
  • 🎓 The script introduces Hack Pack, a subscription-based learning tool that teaches engineering and programming through buildable robots.
  • 📚 Hack Pack includes a web-based coding module with three levels of difficulty, allowing users to hack and enhance their robots' functionalities.
  • 🤖 Each Hack Pack box comes with a build video, a tutorial on the tools used, and a community platform for sharing ideas and hacks.
  • 🎁 Early subscribers to Hack Pack are offered a free box, and a Platinum Scholarship with free college education is given out a few times a year.

Q & A

  • What is the primary purpose of the drone described at the beginning of the transcript?

    -The primary purpose of the drone is to lock onto a malicious drone and destroy it by smashing it into pieces using its kinetic energy.

  • What is the name of the company that is a leader in drone defense?

    -Anduril is the company that is a leader in drone defense.

  • Who is the founder of Anduril and what is his notable achievement?

    -Palmer Luckey is the founder of Anduril. He is notably known for inventing the Oculus VR headset at the age of 19.

  • What is the name of Anduril's fast drone designed to combat dangerous drones?

    -The fast drone designed by Anduril to combat dangerous drones is called Anvil.

  • What is the name of the software system used by Anduril for detecting, classifying, and tracking drones?

    -The software system used by Anduril for these purposes is called Lattice.

  • What are the six primary ways to take out a drone with bad intentions according to Palmer Luckey?

    -The six primary ways are jamming, hacking, high powered lasers, focused beam of microwave energy (like an EMP), nets fired from other drones, and smashing the drone using kinetic energy.

  • What is the main weakness of using jamming to disable a drone?

    -The main weakness is that by using a different brand of drone, a different brand of radio, a different frequency, or building a drone that doesn't require those frequencies, the jamming method can be bypassed.

  • What is the name of the product that Mark Rober has been working on for over two years?

    -The product Mark Rober has been working on is called Hack Pack.

  • What is the main goal of the Hack Pack?

    -The main goal of the Hack Pack is to provide a series of fun, programmable robots that teach engineering skills through hands-on building and coding.

  • What is the name of the drone defense system that Will created in the backyard engineering competition?

    -Will created a drone defense system that uses eight overlapping photodetectors to actively track and smash into the target drone.

  • What is the prize for the winner of the drone defense derby in the script?

    -The winner of the drone defense derby receives three Hack Packs.

Outlines

00:00

🛸 Advanced Drone Defense Technology

The video introduces a cutting-edge drone defense system developed by Anduril, a company led by Palmer Luckey, the creator of the Oculus VR headset. The system is designed to counteract malicious drones, which could potentially carry explosives or attack infrastructure. The video discusses the limitations of traditional drone interception methods, such as jamming and hacking, due to the adaptability of drones to different frequencies and brands. It then introduces Anduril's Anvil drone, an autonomous, high-speed drone capable of physically smashing threat drones using kinetic energy. The Anduril system also includes a sophisticated detection and tracking software called Lattice, which uses AI and machine learning to identify and monitor airborne objects.

05:01

🚀 Anduril's Drone Defense in Action

The video demonstrates the effectiveness of Anduril's drone defense system through a live test. Anvil, the defense drone, is shown engaging with a simulated threat drone, locking onto its position, and awaiting a human operator's command to attack. The system's ability to detect and track drones is attributed to a network of sensor towers. In addition to Anvil, Anduril has developed Roadrunner, a cost-effective solution for neutralizing larger and faster drones without the need for expensive missiles. The video also teases a backyard engineering competition among YouTube engineers to tackle drone defense, hinting at creative solutions involving giant dart turrets and vortex cannons.

10:04

🎓 Introducing the Hack Pack for Engineering Enthusiasts

The video transitions to a new product launch, the Hack Pack, a subscription-based service offering programmable robots for individuals to build and learn engineering skills. The Hack Pack includes a desktop turret robot, a domino robot, a custom label maker, and a sand garden. These robots are designed to be easily hackable, allowing users to enhance their functionality through web-based coding modules. The video outlines three levels of coding access, from locked-down templates to full customization. The Hack Pack also provides an AI chat bot and a community forum for support and inspiration. The video concludes with a special offer for viewers to receive a free Hack Pack box as an early subscriber bonus.

15:05

🔫 Amateur Engineering Solutions to Drone Defense

The video presents a backyard engineering competition where the host and his friends construct various contraptions to defend against drones. The contraptions include a mega turret firing preloaded darts, a propane-oxygen fueled cannon, a Tesla coil with an electrically conductive goo shooter, and an autonomous hunting drone. Each participant's invention is tested against a drone, with varying degrees of success. The competition showcases the creativity and ingenuity of amateur engineers in addressing the challenge of drone defense.

20:06

🏆 The Drone Defense Derby Winner

After a series of tests and near misses, the video concludes with the announcement of the winner of the drone defense derby. The host, acknowledging the impressive engineering feat, declares William the winner for his autonomous hunting drone that successfully tracked and destroyed the target drone. William's prize includes three Hack Pack boxes to further enhance his engineering skills. The video encourages viewers to visit CrunchLabs.com to claim their free Hack Pack box and embark on their engineering journey.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Autonomous Drone

An autonomous drone is a type of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can operate independently without direct human control. In the context of the video, the autonomous drone is a key subject as it is designed to lock onto and neutralize malicious drones, showcasing its importance in the theme of drone defense technology.

💡Drone Defense

Drone defense refers to the technologies and strategies used to protect against unauthorized or malicious drones. The video's main theme revolves around various methods of drone defense, including jamming, hacking, and physical interception, as discussed by the company Anduril and the founder Palmer Luckey.

💡Kinetic Energy

Kinetic energy is the energy that an object possesses due to its motion. In the video, the concept is used to describe how Anduril's drone, Anvil, uses kinetic energy to physically destroy a threat drone by smashing into it at high speeds, illustrating the practical application of this scientific principle in drone defense.

💡Machine Learning

Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence that allows systems to learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed. The video mentions machine learning as part of the software system 'lattice' used by Anduril to detect, classify, and track drones, highlighting its role in enhancing the precision of drone defense systems.

💡Counter-Drone Technology

Counter-drone technology encompasses a range of solutions designed to detect, disrupt, and neutralize drones that pose a threat. The video explores several counter-drone methods, from jamming and hacking to physical interception, and even innovative backyard inventions, emphasizing the evolving nature of this technology.

💡Anduril

Anduril is a company specializing in drone defense technologies. In the video, Anduril is portrayed as a leader in this field, with its founder Palmer Luckey discussing the company's approach to drone defense and showcasing their high-speed drone, Anvil, which is designed to physically take down threat drones.

💡Oculus VR Headset

The Oculus VR headset is a virtual reality device known for its immersive gaming experience. Palmer Luckey, the founder of Anduril mentioned in the video, is recognized for dropping out of school at 19 to invent the Oculus VR headset, providing context on his background in innovative technology development.

💡EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse)

An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is a burst of electromagnetic radiation that can damage, incapacitate, or destroy electronic devices. The video discusses the use of focused microwave energy, similar to an EMP, as a method to disable drones by inducing a high current in their electronics, showcasing the concept's application in drone defense.

💡Hack Pack

Hack Pack is a series of programmable robots delivered to subscribers, aiming to teach engineering and programming skills in a fun and hands-on way. Introduced by the video's host, the Hack Pack is positioned as a tool for learning and innovation, encouraging individuals to explore and enhance their technical abilities.

💡Vortex Cannon

A vortex cannon is a device that uses a spinning vortex of air to launch or propel objects. In the video, a backyard engineer uses a vortex cannon in an attempt to take down a drone, demonstrating a creative and unconventional approach to the problem of drone defense.

💡Tesla Coil

A Tesla coil is an electrical resonant transformer device that was invented by Nikola Tesla. In the context of the video, a backyard engineer employs a Tesla coil to create a spectacular display of electrical energy in an attempt to disable a drone, highlighting the use of dramatic visual effects in their drone defense strategy.

Highlights

A drone defense system is being developed to counteract potential threats from malicious drones.

Anduril Industries, led by Palmer Luckey, is pioneering drone defense technology.

Palmer Luckey, the inventor of the Oculus VR headset, discusses the vulnerability of low airspace.

Six primary methods to neutralize drones are identified, with one being particularly effective.

Jamming and hacking are two drone defense methods, but they have potential bypasses.

High-powered lasers can disable plastic drones but struggle with metal reflective surfaces.

Microwave energy can be thwarted by covering drones with copper tape.

Nets fired from other drones can capture drones but are slower and less agile.

The sixth and most effective method involves a kinetic energy approach, smashing the threat drones.

Anduril's Anvil drone uses high-speed collisions to neutralize threat drones.

Advanced detection systems, including radar and AI, are used to identify and track drones.

The Roadrunner system is a cost-effective alternative to missiles for taking down larger drones.

Anduril's solutions are being implemented in sensitive areas such as borders and military bases.

Backyard engineers propose creative solutions to drone defense, including giant dart turrets and Tesla coil water guns.

A community competition is held to see who can create the most effective DIY drone defense.

The Hack Pack is introduced as a programmable robot subscription service for learning engineering skills.

Each Hack Pack includes a build project with the potential for hacking and customization.

Winner of the drone defense competition receives three Hack Pack boxes to further their engineering skills.

Transcripts

00:00

Hiding inside this box is an absolute marvel of engineering.

00:03

You might just find protecting you the next time you're at a public event.

00:06

That's got a lot of people.

00:12

And while this just

00:12

might look like a boring old drone, it's actually one of the fastest in the world.

00:16

It's autonomous, and it weighs five times more than is typical

00:20

because the purpose of this drone is to lock onto a bad guy drone

00:24

trying to do bad guy things and then smash it into a thousand pieces.

00:29

Now the drones have become so incredibly cheap, fast, and maneuverable.

00:32

It's only a matter of time before they're used to carry explosives,

00:35

to attack key infrastructure, or even worse.

00:39

But before we get too worried, there's some good news here.

00:41

And so today we're going to take a look at all the latest technologies being

00:44

developed to combat this very possible scenario.

00:47

And then after we see how the pros are doing it

00:51

we’ll investigate how a few backyard YouTube engineers would handle the same problem.

00:55

And I don't want to give too much away, but it might involve giant dart

00:58

turrets, Tesla coil water guns, and the world's largest vortex cannon.

01:02

Now to kick things off with the pros.

01:04

I headed down to a company called Anduril, who were one of the leaders

01:07

when it comes to drone defense, where I met up with their founder,

01:10

Palmer Luckey,

01:11

who, by the way,

01:12

you might recognize is the dude who dropped out of school

01:14

at 19 years old to invent the Oculus VR headset.

01:17

And right out of the gate, he set the stage.

01:19

The United States has the ability to defend against,

01:21

fighter jet attacks or bomber invasions and zero ability to control

01:24

what happens in the first few hundred feet of our airspace.

01:26

That's the thing we have to solve. We have to tame the Wild West.

01:28

Palmer explained to me there are six primary ways to take out a drone with bad intentions,

01:33

and every method has a major flaw except for number six.

01:36

The first is jamming, where you

01:38

just overwhelm the drone with fake radio signals

01:40

so it can no longer hear the instructions

01:42

from the human operator, and they lose control.

01:45

70% of all consumer drones are from DJI, and they actually provide the equipment

01:49

to law enforcement that will jam the communications like this.

01:52

The second method to take out a drone with bad intentions is hack it,

01:56

where you remotely hack into the drone using the radio signal,

01:58

and then by exploiting known problems in the software, you could take control

02:02

and force it to land or crash.

02:04

But Palmer pointed out

02:05

the potential Achilles heel for both of these first two methods.

02:08

All they have to do to bypass that is use a different brand of drone,

02:11

use different brand of radio, use a different frequency,

02:13

or build a drone that doesn't even need those frequencies in the first place.

02:17

Basically, by using something besides the most popular

02:19

consumer, drones and frequencies means this would have no effect.

02:22

Method number three

02:23

is high powered lasers, where you basically just heat up

02:26

the outside surface of the drone so high that it catches fire.

02:30

And this works pretty well against plastic drone casings.

02:33

But once again, there's a weakness.

02:35

what if I just hang a five cent pie tin?

02:37

Yeah

02:37

It takes orders of magnitude more energy to burn through a

02:41

metal reflective pie tin,

02:42

it just doesnt work.

02:43

The next method is a focused beam of microwave energy, like an EMP.

02:47

The goal here is to induce a current in the drone electronics so high

02:50

that it fries the brain of the drone, but as Palmer explained,

02:53

all a bad guy has to do to mitigate this is to buy some cheap copper tape

02:57

from Home Depot, and once you cover the body of the drone,

03:01

it becomes practically invisible to this attack.

03:03

You can reduce the amount of power that gets to the internal electronics

03:07

from an EMP by orders of magnitude, and that means a microwave beam gun

03:11

that was previously able to fry a drone at 2000m away now

03:15

only works if that copper taped drone is two meters away.

03:19

So now the beam gun is basically useless.

03:21

Coming in at number five are nets fired in the air from other drones.

03:25

And this makes sense

03:26

if you're trying to capture the bad drone for forensic investigation.

03:29

But net carrying drones by default are going to be slower and less maneuverable.

03:34

So they're beatable with speed and agility.

03:36

Now, all of this would be real bad news were it

03:38

not for the sixth method that even works.

03:40

If you designed a super drone

03:42

that combined all the tricks to defeat methods one through five,

03:45

and it's possibly the oldest method of destruction known to man.

03:51

Smashing stuff.

03:55

And because this method is so foolproof, Anduril makes a blazing fast drone

03:59

appropriately called Anvil, whose only job is to use kinetic energy

04:04

to bust up a dangerous drone into thousands of pieces.

04:08

Imagine a children's bowling ball thrown twice

04:11

as fast as a major league Baseball fastball.

04:15

That's what it's like getting hit by Anvil.

04:17

And so naturally, after hearing all of this, I wanted to see it in action.

04:20

So they took me out to their test grounds, where they set up a scenario

04:23

where a bad guy drone was zooming towards our position.

04:26

Thank goodness we’ve got Anvil

04:28

Now, they immediately identified the drone even before it had taken off.

04:31

And that's due to the towers you see here.

04:33

Each tower has sensors on it, such as radar, optical cameras or IR detectors.

04:38

And then they use computer vision, machine learning and AI to detect,

04:42

classify and track everything of interest in a designated area.

04:45

It's so precise

04:47

in fact, it will actually identify and track every single bird on the test range.

04:52

They call this software system lattice, and it's the real secret sauce

04:56

at the core of their company.

04:57

So what we do is we detect a drone, classify what it is,

05:00

and if it's something that Anvil needs to go after,

05:02

let's say you try to jam it, you try to hack it.

05:03

It doesn't work. You now launch Anvil.

05:07

Oh, here it goes.

05:08

Anvil immediately

05:09

zoomed out to the bad guy drone, but importantly, it didn't engage.

05:13

Instead, it just locked into position

05:15

about 30m underneath it, perfectly nearing the other drones movements.

05:19

Turn for a turn, just waiting for a human operator to give the go ahead

05:22

to use it’s terminal guidance sensors to close the gap and attack from below,

05:27

smashing into the drone at speeds approaching 200 miles an hour.

05:31

And, besides just Anvil, they have other systems too,

05:34

such as Roadrunner here, which is designed to take out faster

05:37

and larger drones where you would typically have to fire a Patriot missile.

05:41

But unlike a Patriot missile, Roadrunner costs an order of magnitude less,

05:45

and if you just scare off the threat without needing to engage,

05:48

then it can come back to be reused for another time.

05:51

Ultimately, Anduril is taking the SpaceX approach to using cutting edge

05:55

engineering to make things way more capable for way less money.

05:59

And you know they're doing something right

06:00

because they have some portion of their solutions currently implemented

06:03

in a lot of different places. Southern border, northern border,

06:06

national parks, military bases around critical infrastructure,

06:09

around nuclear energy sites.

06:11

There's a lot of sensitive places where you don't want to have no idea

06:16

who's there and what they might be doing.

06:17

And so now that we’ve got a handle on how the pros do drone defense

06:20

the question you’re probably wondering is how would Mark Rober do drone defense.

06:24

I think the answer is, it will probably look something like this

06:27

a 7 foot tall fully articulated mega turret

06:30

that fires a 6 shooter barrel worth of preloaded mega darts

06:34

and so to properly test out how effective this was

06:37

I called 3 of my engineering buddies who also came up with their own ideas on how they

06:40

would tackle the problem, and it sort of turned into a 4 person backyard engineering competition.

06:45

So in addition to my mega turret, their designs might include a fully electrified drone squirt gun

06:50

a vortex cannon that can do some real damage and even a very scrappy system

06:55

that does a little of it’s own autonomous drone tracking

06:57

but for context on our bootstrap engineering showdown

07:00

It’s important that I first let you know about a super secret project i’ve been working on

07:04

for over two years because ever since I launched CrunchLabs

07:07

the biggest piece of feedback was that this was great for kids to have a bunch of fun learning how to create and build

07:12

but what about something for teenagers

07:14

and adults?

07:14

Well, I'm happy to say that starting today, that exists now, and this is it.

07:19

It's called Hack Pack, and it's basically a series

07:22

of really fun, programable robots that get delivered right to your door,

07:25

where we build it together and learn step by step,

07:28

the kinds of engineering skills that go into making the builds on my channel.

07:32

And don't be intimidated because all these use

07:34

a programmable microcontroller as the brain.

07:36

Because if you can put together

07:37

a Lego set, you can put together this and it will work right out of the box.

07:42

No programing required and it will still be really fun.

07:46

Heck yeah.

07:47

Meaning for the first desktop turret robot.

07:49

It works just like my mega turret, where the IR remote can spin it 360

07:54

degrees and you can fire the six shooter barrel

07:56

worth of pre-loaded darts, either one at a time or rapid fire,

07:59

after which you just refill the magnetic snap on barrel cartridge.

08:02

And then for the next box, you'll be building this awesome

08:05

domino robot that will follow any line you put on the ground

08:08

and lay down a path of dominoes right on that path,

08:11

but then it knows to stop for a refill when it runs out.

08:16

After that, you've got this oversize custom label maker that works using

08:19

just a Sharpie and a roll of masking tape, or this beautiful sand garden

08:24

controlled with a polar gantry.

08:25

But here's the thing that makes these totally different.

08:28

And this is the real magic of Hack Pack.

08:30

You can easily hack the brains of any of these robots in a bunch of ways

08:34

to completely level up the functionality.

08:37

So for example, for the desktop turret, you can make it password protected

08:40

so only you can control it. And if your friend tries

08:42

and gets it wrong, the robot's going to let him know that.

08:45

Or there's a party mode.

08:46

Sort of like Pie Face, where everyone sits around the table

08:49

and it will spin around as it terrifyingly plays with your emotions.

08:53

Or you can hack it.

08:54

So when your dad turns on the TV, the receiver picks up on that signal

08:57

and autonomously turns to his chair to unload the full barrel of darts.

09:02

But there's even hardware hacks, too, so it can continuously scan your office.

09:05

And if you add a proximity sensor to detect an intruder, it will give them

09:09

six convincing rapid fire reasons to get the heck out.

09:12

So all these cool ideas act as a motivator for you to check out the web-based

09:16

coding module,

09:17

where you can plug in your robot brain and make any of these updates.

09:21

And when you're there, you'll see there's three levels.

09:23

At level one, the code is fully locked down,

09:25

and you can only swap out the full code for verified new

09:28

hacks like the passcode hack.

09:29

At level two, you can now change some key variables, like how quickly

09:33

the barrel turns or how many numbers to put in your passcode lock.

09:36

And then at level three, you have full access to change everything.

09:39

And since my goal is to take you

09:40

from wherever you're currently at and then level you up, there's a community

09:44

where you can post questions, as well as an AI chat bot named Mark Robot

09:47

that will check your code for you and help you implement your most creative ideas.

09:51

And each really slick looking hack pack box that gets delivered to your door

09:55

not only includes a video from me

09:56

that shows you how to put it together, but each video also gives you a new juicy

10:00

nugget about the tools I use to build and code stuff so you can grow

10:03

your creative engineering brain muscles one step at a time.

10:07

We put up the lid sticker instruction video for this first box, plus a 20 minute

10:11

Arduino crash course on the CrunchLabs YouTube channel,

10:14

so you can see for yourself that we're not cutting any corners.

10:16

Just like with my YouTube videos, I love taking complicated things

10:20

and making them simple. And that's what we've done here.

10:22

So if you've always wanted to learn to code, this is for you.

10:25

But if you're a master coder and builder, this is also for you

10:29

because this is a community.

10:30

So I'll absolutely be looking for the most impressively

10:33

ridiculous hacks and modifications.

10:35

And then we'll be sure all the other subscribers

10:37

see them so they can be inspired to make their own hacks.

10:40

And Hack Pack is a great activity to do with friends and family,

10:43

or even just by yourself.

10:45

If you've always wanted to make and build cool stuff,

10:47

but just haven't figured out that first step.

10:49

On top of all that, a couple times a year I'll be randomly selecting one box in

10:54

which I'll place the Platinum Scholarship, and if your box has it, congratulations!

10:58

Because college is now free for you or a loved one you want to transfer it to.

11:03

Plus you get to come out the CrunchLabs and brainstorm some of your own ideas

11:07

with me and my team for a day.

11:08

So if you want to embark

11:09

on this journey of discovery with me, just go to CrunchLabs.com

11:12

or use the link in the video description. Where to say thank you.

11:15

We're giving away one free box as an early subscriber special.

11:18

We poured our hearts into these for over two years, and

11:22

I am so confident your brain is going to love them.

11:25

But supplies are definitely limited

11:26

on this first run, so if you don't want to miss out,

11:29

be sure to go check out that link in the video description.

11:31

And with that, let's get to the competition. Gentlemen.

11:33

What's the confidence level at? Here? Maybe like here?

11:36

Can I have a shovel?

11:37

That's the sound of an engineer who's not got a lot of sleep this week

11:40

I'm excited to face off my turret versus your turret.

11:42

Your turret actually shoots things.

11:44

How do you know what mine is?

11:45

It's right there. oh. That thing.

11:50

It's controllable with the Hack Pack turret remote.

11:53

No.

11:54

I’m sorry.

11:55

Move it that way.

11:56

Lucky for the boys.

11:57

The turret got distracted as the first drone took to the sky,

12:00

pausing at a height where only a mega turret could possibly bring it down.

12:04

I could absolutely hit that with a rock.

12:06

And maybe that's true for the average person,

12:09

but let's face it

12:10

none of us are exactly

12:12

first to be picked in gym class type material.

12:15

At any rate, it was time to see what this bad boy could do.

12:18

Let me line it up. Hold on.

12:20

Oh, yeah, that's looking good.

12:22

Three two. One.

12:27

Ohhhh

12:29

that was pretty cool.

12:30

Yeah.

12:30

But you missed. Dang it.

12:33

Oh

12:34

A little to the right.

12:36

Fire!

12:36

Oh! Wow!

12:38

Oh, this is the one.

12:40

I can feel it. Three, two. One.

12:45

Oh, yeah.

12:49

Oh, yeah.

12:51

Wait.

12:52

Hey!

12:53

What?

12:54

The drone recovered from that. That was So cool.

12:57

That drone is so much more impressive than the turret

13:00

Lucky for me, the definitely not made up on the spot rules state that

13:04

if a dart makes contact with the drone, you get one final bonus shot.

13:10

Yes! Oh,

13:14

the mega turret had secured

13:16

It's dead.

13:17

A mega hit check it out. You actually did

13:20

Yeah. bust that off soo

13:22

Whats up now?

13:23

Lets see you guys beat this.

13:25

Huh!

13:26

Question is, which one of you guys wants to try and top that? Me. Me

13:31

First up, we've got Kevin.

13:34

Where is Kevin?

13:34

He's uhhh...

13:35

oh!

13:36

Yee haw!

13:37

Woo hoo!

13:38

Yee haw!

13:39

Kevin! Yeah, yeah.

13:42

Coming for your drones.

13:43

This feels like it's bigger than. Whoa.

13:46

Necessary.

13:47

This is the V rad cannon avian defense turret.

13:54

Avian defense.

13:55

So what, you scare birds with that?

13:57

Yeah, and shoot down drones.

13:59

This concept was actually invented 200 years ago by farmers

14:02

shooting it at hail clouds in the sky to try and save their crops.

14:06

But then they found a far less speculative application that was just to shoot it

14:10

towards birds, to scare them away from eating all the seeds in the field.

14:13

You're going to look so silly if the drone doesn't get shot

14:16

down with this thing Kevin, giddy up!

14:17

And when you mix just the right amount of oxygen and propane

14:20

in the combustion chamber and then give it a spark

14:22

You basically get a single shot rocket engine

14:25

Three. Two.

14:27

One fire!

14:32

Fire! Wow.

14:34

Kevin.

14:34

Real impressive.

14:36

ohhh!

14:37

God!

14:42

And it absolutely destroyed the drone.

14:44

Oh, my God, it, like, actually totally died. Wow.

14:49

That looked like a really good way to kill a drone.

14:51

Actually, that was just really good.

14:52

And that's when we realized it was also a great way to play a certain game

14:57

called chicken.

14:58

Bring it on.

14:59

And if you think for a second

15:01

we were scared to stand before this gigantic cannon, why are we doing this?

15:05

You're right. But what's even more scary?

15:08

Oh Oh Oh

15:09

Oh my god! wait. thats like a jet flying overhead. Did it hit any of us?

15:13

Was doing it over and over again until it found its aim.

15:17

Oh, my.

15:18

I wasn’t ready

15:19

It's coming up towards us.

15:21

Oh my gosh.

15:23

I hope it blows your hat off and we can see what you're hiding under there.

15:26

Oh, no. Oh,

15:30

Earggghhh.

15:34

It got my head.

15:37

Oh oh.

15:43

Oh

15:45

Oh. It's still going.

15:45

Oh. It's still going.

15:50

Oh my god

15:53

And in our game of chicken, we were definitely prepared

15:55

to get much closer to the cannon like these guys.

15:57

But sadly, we ran out of jet fuel and had to move on.

16:01

This is my invention.

16:03

This is a Tesla coil. You know

16:04

When you rub your feet on a carpet and you get a spark.

16:07

Yeah, I know it. This is like a billion times more powerful than that,

16:10

three, two, one Tesla coil?

16:17

And if it was a contest for coolest visuals

16:20

Wow! See that's pretty cool, right?

16:22

Alan definitely would have won

16:23

right on the spot, but it wasn't. I feel like that's not gonna get a drone

16:28

All right, here's my real plan.

16:30

Salty electrically conductive goo.

16:33

Is that legal?

16:34

What in the world is this?

16:36

So this is Xanthan gum and salt.

16:38

It should conduct electricity.

16:40

That nozzle is going to shoot a stream of goo

16:43

So when it touches the drone, it's going to fry it.

16:45

Well, it's just salty protein. Yeah.

16:47

Yeah! It's thick.

16:48

It's safe to say I had reservations about pretty much all of this. Tesla coil on.

16:54

As predicted, the coil on its own had nowhere near the range

16:56

to hit the drone. Goo stream on. Oh!

17:00

Oh, wow.

17:02

Why is so low? That's no good.

17:06

And it seemed like the goo wouldn't either.

17:08

But after a little pressure adjustment, we got

17:11

the electric goo gun made contact.

17:14

Oh, now come on.

17:16

Oh yes. Yes.

17:19

And it seemed like Alan had taken it out for good.

17:21

Whoa oh, It’s still like trying to be alive.

17:26

There was no way to salvage things here.

17:28

So sadly... Use your heel mark in one solid hit.

17:31

This feels wrong.

17:32

We had to put the little guy out of his misery.

17:35

No, Mark!

17:36

Mark, it’s still twitching

17:39

I'm so sorry.

17:40

Goodbye, little fella.

17:43

Oh. Oh, no

17:46

I said good bye.

17:48

May your microchips forever rest in the watery depths below.

17:52

And that's how you kill a drone.

17:53

The light's still on. Oh.

17:57

All right, Will, I think it's your turn.

17:59

It's this.

18:00

Wait! Throwing in a fog machine.

18:03

And special effects?

18:05

I didn't know we could order a fog. But out of the fog.

18:08

Williams creation gloriously emerged.

18:12

Sort of.

18:12

I want you to hold on to that. Wait.

18:14

This is the point, I realized.

18:15

Will's drone.

18:16

had taken a sudden interest in what I was holding.

18:19

It’s looking at you Mark. It’s looking at you I suddenly feel unsafe

18:22

Run away, Mark.

18:24

And it was totally tracking me until it wasn’t.

18:27

I did finish it just 30 minutes ago.

18:29

Will had very ambitiously

18:31

taken the Anduril approach of attempting to actively track the target drone.

18:35

Ultimately, his hunting drone was using eight overlapping photodetectors

18:39

to look for a specific IR source on the target drone I was holding,

18:43

and then it would keep itself

18:44

oriented in the direction where that signal was the strongest.

18:47

You have to attach this thing to the target drone for your drone

18:51

to know where it is. uhh yeah.

18:53

I mean, how's it going to take it down? by smashing into it.

18:57

Let's do it.

18:58

And this is where Will brought in his secret weapon, Peter Sripol

19:02

But to be fair, all Peter was actually doing

19:04

was hitting the gas pedal on the drone at the right time.

19:07

All the other choices were being made autonomously by the drone itself.

19:10

Okay, I'm taking off, and then we're going autonomous.

19:13

All right.

19:14

So it's it's hunting.

19:15

Oh, it's going towards the drone. Run!

19:18

Ohh. Oh it missed!

19:20

Oh boy! it’s coming back

19:22

Okay.

19:23

Go!

19:24

it reminds me of like Toro.

19:26

Toro.

19:29

Ohhh

19:32

that looked pretty good.

19:33

But after a series of near misses.

19:36

yes, the hunter got serious.

19:38

Oh. Whoa.

19:41

Nice.

19:42

Smashing into the drone

19:44

for the final kill of the night and taking a much deserved victory lap.

19:49

round of applause.

19:53

That was cool.

19:53

Time to announce the winner of the drone defense derby

19:56

I get to decide since this is my channel.

19:58

And honestly, I gotta give this one to William. Yeah.

20:01

As much as I hate to say it. Oh, I didn’t sleep at all. I deserve it.

20:06

From an engineering standpoint, it's very, very impressive.

20:09

And your prize, you get three Hack Packs.

20:13

Whoa oh oh.

20:15

Now you guys can, you know, hone those engineering skills in.

20:19

And so if you too want to hone your own engineering skills or heck,

20:22

even just begin to learn some basic building skills in the easiest way

20:25

possible while having a ton of fun at the same time.

20:28

Be sure to check out that link in the video description to CrunchLabs.com

20:32

to get your free Hack Pack box as the Early Adopter special.

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