Drone vs ham: Watch Danish scientists punish pork to highlight drone safety

Researchers from Aalborg University have performed genuine scientific experiments in drone safety culminating in an innocent joint of ham receiving horrifying impact wounds from a motorised propeller blade.

Be warned, the brutal footage is not for the faint-hearted as presumably several unsuspecting slabs of uncooked swine were hurt during filming.

Just why is the certified meat of kings being subjected to such a cruel piggy punishment? Thankfully, the scientists from the university's Drone Research Lab are not meat-mauling sadists and are actually studying the potential harm a hobbyist's drone could inflict on other people and animals.

By flinging a drone propeller blade at a ham joint at a terrifying rate of 15 metres per second, the researchers hope to simulate the injuries a human might sustain from an unwanted intimate encounter with an off-the-shelf drone.

The motorised catapult used in the experiment measures nearly three metres long, with the one kilogram drone unit being filmed in the vicious act via a high speed camera capturing over 3,000 frames per second. The real time footage (below) is marginally less wince-worthy, however I certainly wouldn't be volunteering to replace the hammy hostage.

"The objective is to examine the consequences when different kinds of drones hit people, animals, cars, glass panes and other obstacles they may encounter in their path," said the Drone Lab director Anders la Cour-Harbo. "With a high-speed camera and precise measurements of both the speed and the force of the collision, it is possible to assess the damage that may occur."

The project is currently in a testing phase, with la Cour-Harbo stressing that it would be too early to make any official conclusions regarding the overall threat of drone injury to beings other than duct-tape bound porcine produce.

With a father also opting to eschew standard dental practice in favour of pulling his daughter's tooth out with a Millenium Falcon drone, IBTimes UK is compelled to ask, is there no end to the carnage these vengeful drones are willing to dish out?