With sirens screaming, police pursue a bankrobber through crowded city streets. It may make for a good episode of Cops, but such chases may one day become obsolete. Trent DePersia wants to see if cops can shut down a fleeing suspect's engine by remote and make the would-be getaway car coast gently to a stop.
DePersia manages the Electrical and Electromagnetic Vehicle Stopper Test and Evaluation program at the Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, Maryland. Researchers there test devices that fire intense beams of electromagnetic radiation at automobiles. Aiming this energy at the computers that control the ignition and fuel systems can fry their circuits, cutting off the engine like a power surge taking down an unprotected desktop computer.
DePersia's group is working to determine the minimum level of energy needed to sizzle a car's computers without short-circuiting a bystander's pacemaker.
