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Comment by esel2k | Hacker News Reader

I think the 4minutes will be very hard. But since the limiting factor is the battery and the dog probably not cooperating, why not first fly a solar panel (to charge the drone) or an unpowered trap (to give enough time to catch the dog) to allow to rerisk the limitations…

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Flying in a solar panel along with a system that can connect itself to the drone autonomously sounds very expensive (does such a system exist?). Or is the idea to put a solar panel on the drone, and then have it land and charge for a while?

Something like a big raccoon trap is probably a good idea - perhaps they’re running up against weight limits. Those traps are pretty heavy.

A deep trash can with some meat glued to the bottom would probably work, with the drone tied to something near the open top. It would fall on its side when set down, and trap the dog when lifted. Assuming there's a way to lift it quickly enough.

I suppose dropping a trap, and coming back later is a better idea, but it would use a lot of the 20kg weight budget.

Good idea. I'm not sure why drone charging stations with auto landing pads aren't a commerically sold product yet. I've seen a lot of implementations in masters theses and stuff. If your robot vaccum can do it, your drone can do it.

Autel recently announced one: http://autelrobotics.com/productdetail/6.html

Cool!

I assume they'll use a lightweight trap cage loaded with food that's laced with some kind of tranquilizer.

Then after the cage is dropped just come back and fly it out.

Anything else seems pretty risky to me.

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