From Hackaday
by: James Hobson
Arguably, drones are one of the next big things that will revolutionize many industries. We’ve already seen them portrayed in many movies and TV shows in not-so-distant futures, and what with Amazon planning drone deliveries, we can’t imagine it’ll be long before they are a common sight flying around cities.
While drone racing remains underground in many places, the Drone Racing League is hoping to change that — and turn it into a real sport. In the recent article by The New Stack, they compare drone racing to the beginning of skateboarding back in the 90’s;
With a small group of people pushing the envelope and inventing every day.
Not for long though. DRL is making a huge push to turn this into a mainstream sport, and we gotta admit — we don’t mind. After all, this is like pod-racing on crack. Just take a look at the following promo video for their course the Gates of Hell: the Dream Takes Form.
That is some exciting stuff. We love the use of colored lights to indicate the map path — this could become an industry in itself, designing race tracks for drones! Imagine ones where the route changes mid-race, it’s all possible with a huge network of lighted gates… there’s so many possibilities…
[Thanks for the tip Destinyland!]
Full article here
Comments
I watched this video twice. Can't understand what they are seeing in that headphones on their eyes :)
As a former F5D pylon racer, I am pretty curious about this development. But pylon racing never achieved any noticeable attention though it is some kind of spectacular in my opinion. My prediction is, that it is still too nerdy and it is not enough danger or something similar, what will get the crowd's attention. Anyhow this is my prediction, not my hope. And I have to say I would like to see more spectacular airframes. Vtol for example, something where we can see pinnacle of technologie. That would help I guess.
I don't know about all that drama and fpv racing as a commercial thing, but they are so damn fun to fly I can't tell you. It will put your flying confidence (and PID tuning) on a whole different level once you fly these things a few dozen times. A lot of innovation going on, like tiny 4S systems with TBS Powercubes and a GoPro at 80 mph, micro ESCs, indestructible DAL props, flight-time/power trade-offs, battery destruction tests...it's been a great way for me to ramp up the learning curve about all things quadcopter.
That being said, live events will be much more about consuming streaming content than actually showing up, especially since great venues like the one above would be impossible to work out with a crowd.
it is certainly a very exciting live event.
Being able to hook on any pilot camera feed, when you bring your own goggles, puts you in the driver seat.
From my conversations at booths at InterDrone 2015, there will be many people getting into this. And that should drive improvements in motors, ESCs and other components. Apparently many groups are forming through Facebook. One wonders if this will spawn a whole new array of sound and light effects during the action... to attract paying race attendees, who will consume their favorite food and beverage, buy sponsored race gear, ...
Will drone racing become competitive with horse and auto racing?
Regards,
TCIII AVD