The new sport of drone racing sees small but very quick robots fly around a circuit littered with obstacles. Unlike motorsports we have an understanding of, the path of a drone race might be three-dimensional, with obstacles they should fly around, under, over as well as through.

The pilots stay on the ground however they fly using a view as if these folks were being placed in the aircraft. This method is known as first-person-view, or FPV, and you may often begin to see the sport generally known as drone racing.

Drone racing began as a possible underground activity. Early races took place in empty car parks, and parking garages are a favourite venue for drone racers.

Forests can also be a perfect venue for drone racing enthusiasts, possibly inspired from the speeder bike chase scene from the Star Wars movie Return in the Jedi.

A reasonable sport

The key of drone racing’s rapid development lies in the technology required to participate. Nearly all of the essential components are relatively cheap and quite accessible. This is the exact complete opposite of most motor sport.

The primary factors of a drone racing set-up are the drone itself, an on-board camera, a good video transmitter, some immersive video goggles and some controllers. All these components are now just one internet order away.

A low cost set-up can be assembled for a few hundred dollars. Unlike Formula 1 car racing, it is possible to build a racer at home and enter yourself right into a race competition. This really is something to the masses to successfully do, that is a fascinating prospect to the armchair sports enthusiast.

A paper plane FPV drone is now available. You fold a paper plane, precisely like you did if you were a kid, and you then install the motors, autopilot and camera system. You make use of your smartphone inside a box as your FPV goggles.

Safety

The biggest reason drone racing is cheap is since there are no people on-board and therefore the drones are extremely small. Many of them are tiny; they only need to be large enough to handle the video camera, battery and a few electronics.

This actually also signifies that the sport is just not overly hazardous to people from the immediate area. Although drones race nearly speeds approaching 150km/h outdoors, indoors their speed is far more limited due to proximity of obstacles, plus they typically weigh only hundreds of grams. Some drones fit the palm within your hand.

Precisely what is FPV drone racing?

Starting a homemade drone for the upcoming round. Credit: Stefan Hrabar, Author provided

The nature in the courses entails that the possibility of impact with all the humans governing the drones or spectators is rather low. The courses are deliberately build that way.

When flying outside, drone racers must operate as outlined by their country’s specific airspace regulations, which differ among nations. Some are updated and consider the use of drones, while others are more outdated and the use of drones is complex and even just impossible.

The motivation for strict controls will be to keep people not mixed up in flying beyond harm’s way and also decreasing the risk which a drone could fly away and pose a severe hazard for a regular aircraft carrying people. All regulators are grappling with how drones will regulated as people acquire more into FPV racing.

When racing indoors, you will discover no air space regulations for drone racers to concern yourself with. This is just about the reasons that racing around empty car parks, warehouses and offices is popular.

Chasing the cash

The rapid rise of drone racing has already been showing that this can be a big money sport. In 2015, Chad Nowak from Brisbane, Australia, was crowned thefirst world champion of drone racing.

His first prize was really a$15,000 and that he had only been drone racer for a year. They have now moved to the US to become nearer to the centre in the big prize money drone racing scene. Because the sport grows, it can be inevitable that leagues will form, sponsorship will likely be attracted, and you will have regional and national champions.

In January 2016, an organisation known as the Drone Racing League (DRL) announced that it had secured A$8 million to work a major international FPV drone racing series.

Like modern Formula 1 racing, where the viewer in your own home could see a live video stream from the cars, DRL says that it will eventually give viewers a customisable view from the drones. Other rival leagues and events are forming as interest grows.

And simply like other existing motorsports, unfortunately, it can be clear that drone racing is beginning by helping cover their major gender inequality issues. The DRL has one female pilot right out of the 17 listed.

A revolutionary drone racing group from the Gold Fields of Western Australia is wanting to make use of the modern sport to bring in tourists with their region. Their videos from drones racing over spectacular desert-like landscapes are similar to pod racing scene in Star Wars The Phantom Menace.

Drone racing is really a whole new activity that it is challenging to predict if this will end up a primary sport to rival established individual racing sports. It could be quickly superseded from the next big part of tech. Jet pack racing anyone?