New London — The Coast Guard doesn't kill.

So a group of cadets at the Coast Guard Academy are developing a non-lethal way — using a drone and pepper spray — of stopping 'go-fast' boats used by drug cartels to transport large amounts of drugs while remaining largely undetected by radar.

The drug runners are aware of the no-kill policy, and will lie across a boat's engine blocks to prevent the Coast Guard from shooting at the blocks to disable the boat.

So First-class cadets Jeff Bors, Park Suski, Jack Emmons and Tara Larkin — all mechanical engineering majors — thought, how about incorporating pepper spray? 

"We're going to use pepper spray to disable the operators of the vessel," Bors said. "The way we're going to do that is by deploying (the pepper spray) from a drone that we launch out of a helicopter."

First-class cadets majoring in mechanical engineering are finishing up their yearlong capstone projects, during which they create prototypes to solve a problem faced by the Coast Guard.

Bors, Suski, Emmons and Larkin envision their prototype working this way: After spotting a go-fast boat, a helicopter crew member would unfold the drone, lower it about 100 feet using a tow line and then release it to catch up to the boat. 

A crew member would be able to remotely control the drone, view its position on a video screen and use a valve to deploy the pepper spray.

After a lot of research, the four cadets decided on a drone — a remote-control, battery-powered quadcopter — that cost a little more than $2,000, and worked to integrate the various capabilities they wanted it to have.

Size was of concern, given there's limited space on a helicopter, as was the power-to-weight ratio. The drone can fly for 10 minutes at speeds up to 40 knots, or about 46 miles per hour. 

It took a while for the group to decide on pepper spray. They also considered deploying a net from the drone that would tangle a boat's propellers.

Future projects could explore the addition of different payloads to the drone, Bors suggested.

Bors and his groupmates will travel to Cape Cod to test their prototype. Because of Federal Aviation Administration drone regulations, they can't just test it anywhere.

They plan to test the drone's forward flight capabilities and spray pattern, and introduce elements such as wind, Bors said. So far, they've tested the drone's hovering capabilities and deploying the pepper spray.

j.bergman@theday.com