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Drone racing

Racing drones lineup.
A first person-view racing drone showing the drone's video perspective as it navigates obstacles.

Drone racing is a sport where participants control drones (typically small radio-controlled aircraft or quadcopters), equipped with cameras while wearing head-mounted displays -also called FPV (first-person view) goggles- showing the live stream camera feed. Similar to full-size air racing, the goal is to complete a course as quickly as possible. Drone racing began in 2011 in Germany with a number of amateur drone controllers getting together for semi-organized races in Karlsruhe.[1]

Technology

FPV (first-person view) camera means pilots see only what the drone sees. This is accomplished by live streaming footage from a camera mounted on the drone’s nose. The image is transmitted as analog video (typically 2.4 GHz or 5.8 GHz frequency, 1.3 GHz for distant transmission) to goggles or a monitor worn by the pilot. The remote control, drone, and goggles are all connected via radio and must transmit with sufficient speed and reliability to allow effective control.

FPV goggles on the market range from $40 to $800, with the more expensive goggles offering more and better features. Some of these features include receiver diversity, digital HD video, head tracking, multiple frequency settings, band settings, and DVR (digital video recorder) recording functionality. Digital video systems generally offer much better image quality and are now becoming much more commonplace.[2]

While the pilot always requires goggles, some drone racing organizations insist they should also be used by spectators, simply switching the frequency to the channel of the racer the spectator wants to watch.[3] Any drone could be used to race; however, competitive FPV racing leagues require drones to meet certain standards.

For competitions, aircraft are typically separated into classes, categorizing them by propeller or wheel base size and power.[4] MultiGP Drone Racing has created a full definition of Race Class Specifications for racing drones to make the compatition fair. [4]

The Drone Racing League (DRL) makes all of the drones used in its events in-house; pilots are supplied with drones, backup drones, and parts by the league itself, not independently. This means that you only need sufficient knowledge to professionally race.

DR1 Racing utilizes an open-specification class format that relies on each team in the series to supply their own drones, goggles, and gear. Recently, they added the Pro-Class racing drone, which is currently the largest competitive drone racing format in the world.[5]

Racing drones are designed for speed and agility, as opposed to photography and video drones which are focused more on hovering and stable filming.[6] A photography quadcopter design will typically have four motors configured in an X-pattern, all equally spaced apart. A racing model will typically have its four motors configured in an H-pattern configured to thrust the drone forward, not up. Another specific characteristic of drone racing is the number of propellers’ blades. 3-blade or 4-blade (instead of 2-blade) propellers have a shorter diameter, allowing for a smaller frame with increased acceleration and maneuverability capabilities. Because of their light weight and electric motors with large amounts of torque, drones can accelerate and maneuver with great speed and agility. This makes for very sensitive controls and requires a pilot with a quick reaction time and a steady hand. Racing drones also have their cameras situated at the front of the drone, since the drone always flies forwards and the pilot needs to be able to navigate. Photography drones usually have high-quality cameras situated on the front or bottom of the drone body with a gimbal, which allows the drone to film from multiple angles while hovering, as well as stabilizing the footage for video. The gimbal automatically rotates to smooth out the faster movements of the photography drone when compensating for wind or control inputs to deliver smooth video in all but the heaviest wind or emergency maneuvers.

BMW held the Drone Racing League’s 2018 Semi-Finals race at their automobile museum, the BMW Welt, in Munich, Germany, and sold out the event.[7]

Course design

MultiGP provides community standards for their races to safely design their own courses and also generates individual pilot competition such as the Global Qualifier which ranks pilots worldwide on standard measured courses.[8] MultiGP gates are the most common gates used for 5" and 7" drone class races.

DRL creates three-dimensional racecourses internationally.[9] The Sci-Fi inspired tracks stretch around a mile-long.[10]

DR1 Racing's Champions Series is an outdoor racing circuit, flying in locations around the world. Each location or race uses a mixture of environmental and manmade elements to create the course. The courses for the 2017 season in cluded the Trona Pinnacles, the Mojave Boneyard at the Mojave Air and Space Port, the DHL Bonn Post Tower, Bunowen Castle in Ireland, Spike Island, and Isle of Man TT.[11] DR1's Micro Series uses indoor locations.[12]

Others such as the U.S. National Drone Racing Championship tend to conduct their races in open areas with less catastrophic obstacles (flags and cones vs. walls and tunnels).

Major organizations

Drone racer piloting a drone

FPV racing organizations create the rules and regulations that govern the sport.[citation needed]

Past major events

Racing quadcopter flying towards gates and flagpoles in a drone racing event

Events and venues

United States

The U.S. National Drone Racing Championship took place at the 2015 California State Fair. It was a 2-day event with a $25,000 cash prize that attracted over 120 competitors. This was the first event like this in the US, however other countries such as France, Australia and the UK had previously held similar events.[38][39] In 2016, the annual MultiGP Championship was held at the Academy of Model Aeronautics' headquarters in Muncie, Indiana where over 120 pilots competed by qualifying through the MultiGP Regional Series which consists of qualifying events and regional finals in 15 regions across the United States.

MultiGP is a global and professional drone racing league with over 1000 chapters internationally including locations such as Australia, Asia, South Africa and Europe.

United Kingdom

The British Drone Racing League (BDRL) has recently setup and will operate a number of professional events. These events are currently being organised and will follow compliance from the CAA.[40]

Funding

DRL is the only league so far that has established major outside sources of funding.[41] DRL has raised more than $30 million in venture capital backing from entities across the sports, technology, and media spaces. Some notable investors include Sky, Liberty Media (also owners of Formula 1), MGM, CAA, Hearst, WWE, Lux Capital, and RSE Ventures.[42][non-primary source needed] In addition, DRL has sponsors including Allianz, BMW, the US Air Force, and Swatch.[43] It also has other lines of business, including a licensing deal with Toy State, a toy manufacturing company best known for its Nikko remote control car line.[44] Finally, DRL has content licensing deals with networks around the world, including ESPN and Disney XD in the United States, Sky Sports in the UK, OSN in the Middle East, and Fox Sports in Asia.[45][third-party source needed] This funding has been crucial to the development of the league and allows them to advertise and hold their races in better venues that will attract larger crowds.

Other smaller and less established leagues have found it difficult to find funding, often having to use funding from the state and sale of tickets at the event, e.g. the California State Fair. It is also difficult to find venues that create a challenge for the pilots and also have key turns and straightaways. US Army veteran Brett Velicovich has been involved in the launch of drone racing at the Dew Tour.[46] Outside of DRL and DR1, which has Mountain Dew as a sponsor, most smaller events are sponsored by FPV manufacturers such as Fat Shark, ImmersionRC[47] and HobbyKing,[48] DYS, T-Motor, EMAX,[49] Team Black Sheep (TBS).[50]

Simulators

Drone racing can be also simulated on computers via drone flight simulators such as Velocidrone[51] (official MultiGP Simulator), EreaDrone[52] (recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale[53]), Liftoff, neXt, DRL Simulator, etc. Players can use game controllers such as an Xbox or PlayStation controller; however, some radio controllers support plug and play as well.

Publications

Blogs

Magazines

Podcasts

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Drone racing.
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