Drone Racing - The Sport of the Future?

G

Grall

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12-year-old kid wins first world championships, collects US$250,000:
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/03/dubai-world-drone-prix-photos/

In my mind, the sky's basically the limit as to how big drone racing could get as a sport. It's highly, HIGHLY watchable (if you've seen any drone racing vids streamed off of youtube for example you know what I mean), it's exciting as hell due to the perception of speed, fast cornering and so on, plus, you're FLYING. Cars - okay, that's cool, but adding a third dimension to the racing takes things to a wholly different level.

...And it is this great on a regular ole PC monitor! The audience at the event in Dubai were provided with VR headsets they could switch at will between streams for all the competitors. This is where drone racing could win, hugely, over any other current motorsport.

The drone track at this competition was basically flat, though. What if we see more complex shapes in the future, with steep vertical inclines and so on? Heck, why not go all the way and drones become more evolved - loops, corkscrews? An Empire Strikes Back-like asteroids chase-like course? :D

Like I said... The sky's the limit. And as shown here, the kids will lead the way. The next Ayrton Senna is out there, because a kid's brain is malleable and receptive to new things a grownup's just isn't. Drone flying will come naturally to the young ones, once they get to try it.

The future is almost here, this time...! :)
 
Grall said:
12-year-old kid wins first world championships, collects US$250,000:
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/03/dubai-world-drone-prix-photos/

In my mind, the sky's basically the limit as to how big drone racing could get as a sport. It's highly, HIGHLY watchable (if you've seen any drone racing vids streamed off of youtube for example you know what I mean), it's exciting as hell due to the perception of speed, fast cornering and so on, plus, you're FLYING. Cars - okay, that's cool, but adding a third dimension to the racing takes things to a wholly different level.

...And it is this great on a regular ole PC monitor! The audience at the event in Dubai were provided with VR headsets they could switch at will between streams for all the competitors. This is where drone racing could win, hugely, over any other current motorsport.

The drone track at this competition was basically flat, though. What if we see more complex shapes in the future, with steep vertical inclines and so on? Heck, why not go all the way and drones become more evolved - loops, corkscrews? An Empire Strikes Back-like asteroids chase-like course? :D

Like I said... The sky's the limit. And as shown here, the kids will lead the way. The next Ayrton Senna is out there, because a kid's brain is malleable and receptive to new things a grownup's just isn't. Drone flying will come naturally to the young ones, once they get to try it.

The future is almost here, this time...! :)
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The racing is more like a time trial though... I want Drone racing like sonic all Stars transformed :D

Complete with weapons. Don't have to be a real weapon. A fake one like parrot drones are okay
 
@Alexko
Maybe drone soft airguns would be better, because paintball ammo and the required gas bottle to fire it is bulky and heavy. You would need a BIG mother of a drone to successfully carry paintball weapons. Too big to actually be able to shoot it down with paintballs unfortunately I would think. :(
 
Grall said:
@Alexko
Maybe drone soft airguns would be better, because paintball ammo and the required gas bottle to fire it is bulky and heavy. You would need a BIG mother of a drone to successfully carry paintball weapons. Too big to actually be able to shoot it down with paintballs unfortunately I would think. :(
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Yeah but how would you confirm a hit with airsoft guns?
 
Alexko said:
Yeah but how would you confirm a hit with airsoft guns?
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Target plates could be one solution, equipped with impact sensors. Anyhow, these weapons would also add weight to vehicles that already suffer short runtime, so I'm not sure weaponized drones is feasible for the immediate future at least.

Maybe when battery tech has advanced significantly... :)
 
Was going to start a drone flying thread but this one exists, so I'll tag along. I had a week off work last week and rather than work on any existing side projects (including Beyond3D), I bought a racing drone kit in the middle of the week and spent a few days putting it together, culminating in the first (terrible!) test flight on Saturday evening, and some really good subsequent flights yesterday, after I ironed out the bugs from the bad Saturday flight. I'm hooked by the FPV racing side of things, so that's what I'm building up to, but I'm also interested in using the one I built for aerial photography too.

There so much variety in the components if you want to put something unique together, and it's a lot of fun to build. I have no prior model making or electronics experience and I managed to put it together with a few bumps along the way. I took a starter kit from a well known supplier here in the UK and upgraded a few bits and pieces. I'm still learning to fly it, but when I'm confident to really push it, it's capable of 40-50mph on the batteries I have.

Anyway, does anyone else here have one that they fly, racing or otherwise? Can't wait to graduate from basic flying to racing FPV.
 
Grall said:
Target plates could be one solution, equipped with impact sensors. Anyhow, these weapons would also add weight to vehicles that already suffer short runtime, so I'm not sure weaponized drones is feasible for the immediate future at least.

Maybe when battery tech has advanced significantly... :)
Click to expand...

Airsoft is lame, they should at least fire steel pallets that are strong enough to damage to drone. Turn it into a real dogfight with drones crashing and exploding. No way I'm going to watch a bunch of grown men flying drones if no real destruction is involved, I want to see them sitting in a corner crying because their precious little drone got blown to pieces. Kinda like Battlebots. The only reason that was fun was because of the destruction involved.
 
@tongue_of_colicab
I disagree! Air racing from the early decades of the 20th century was plenty exciting; now imagine with several times the relative velocity, with you as a spectator onboard the aircraft! :p

While there's plenty excitement in fiery destruction of vehicles (and potentially drivers) in racing, that's not the prime driver for people watching I think - or so I hope anyway.
 
Grall said:
@tongue_of_colicab
I disagree! Air racing from the early decades of the 20th century was plenty exciting; now imagine with several times the relative velocity, with you as a spectator onboard the aircraft! :p

While there's plenty excitement in fiery destruction of vehicles (and potentially drivers) in racing, that's not the prime driver for people watching I think - or so I hope anyway.
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VR could be the killer app for this, both piloting and spectating. And that of course leads to VR Personal Drones.
 
Rys said:
Was going to start a drone flying thread but this one exists, so I'll tag along. I had a week off work last week and rather than work on any existing side projects (including Beyond3D), I bought a racing drone kit in the middle of the week and spent a few days putting it together, culminating in the first (terrible!) test flight on Saturday evening, and some really good subsequent flights yesterday, after I ironed out the bugs from the bad Saturday flight. I'm hooked by the FPV racing side of things, so that's what I'm building up to, but I'm also interested in using the one I built for aerial photography too.

There so much variety in the components if you want to put something unique together, and it's a lot of fun to build. I have no prior model making or electronics experience and I managed to put it together with a few bumps along the way. I took a starter kit from a well known supplier here in the UK and upgraded a few bits and pieces. I'm still learning to fly it, but when I'm confident to really push it, it's capable of 40-50mph on the batteries I have.

Anyway, does anyone else here have one that they fly, racing or otherwise? Can't wait to graduate from basic flying to racing FPV.
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How expensive was it. I sometimes walk past the isle with the drones in one of Germany's biggest electronics retail stores and even a thousand Euros will only get you something remarkably cheap and flimsy looking.
 
Sigfried1977 said:
How expensive was it. I sometimes walk past the isle with the drones in one of Germany's biggest electronics retail stores and even a thousand Euros will only get you something remarkably cheap and flimsy looking.
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I'm in, including the tools and extra parts I needed like a soldering iron, for around £350. That includes frame, speed controllers, batteries (3 of), motors, flight controller, props, wiring, transmitter, receiver, soldering iron, solder, wire stripper, multitool, extra bolts, locking nuts and everything else. It's a full carbon fibre frame, nothing flimsy about it.

Photo 07-05-2016, 20 47 04.jpg
 
Looks good Rys, but where you're going to put that GPU (top right) and what for on that drone? Is your plan to create first AI drone which will help create Skynet and doom us all?

PS. Great job on build quality!
 
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Hadn't really considered wiring up the R520. Maybe if I add a camera, the R520 can do some image processing to help me avoid trees/people. Mr. Cyberdemon would ruin the power:weight though, I'll need bigger motors and props!

It's currently in pieces pending a rebuild, to tidy up the wiring. Will be back and flying again by the weekend. I made 20 or so test flights last week to carry on learning the controls and how it moves around in flight. It's a lot like learning to drive in that respect. My extensive dual analogue stick console gaming experience is coming in handy finally!
 
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