{"id":440,"date":"2017-05-13T08:27:02","date_gmt":"2017-05-13T13:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/?p=440"},"modified":"2017-05-13T08:28:50","modified_gmt":"2017-05-13T13:28:50","slug":"drone-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/2017\/05\/13\/drone-racing\/","title":{"rendered":"Drone Racing"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve recently noticed that my posts tend to be pretty serious. Of course Science is usually treated as a serious subject but even my reviews of movies and books\u00a0seem to be\u00a0straightforward rather than lighthearted. So today I’m going to talk about something just for the fun of it. Drone Racing!<\/p>\n

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Drone Racing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now flying drones have been around for a long time. I had a radio controlled model P-51 Mustang back when I was a kid (It’s still in my basement) But the latest generation of drones with CCD cameras that allow the\u00a0operator to see what the drone sees and high energy lithium-ion batteries powering high torque electric motors have revolutionized the consumer market for drones.<\/p>\n

With more and more people buying and operating drones it was only a matter of time before somebody started competitions for them and the first organized drone races appear to have begun in Australia in 2014. Formally these races are know as First Person View (FPV) Drone Races where the drone operator wears virtual reality glasses showing images from the drone’s camera as they pilot the drone through a set race track, usually with obstacles.<\/p>\n

The courses can vary widely, being either indoor or outdoor, with either simple obstacles like a cone to go around to narrow passageways to maneuver through. Some courses are designed purely for speed while others emphasize maneuverability with crashes being a part of the fun.<\/p>\n

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Drone Racing Course in Phoenix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the things I like best about drone racing is that spectators can\u00a0also put on a pair of virtual reality glasses and get the view from any drone, switching from one contestant to another as they will. I think this technology will\u00a0soon make it possible for people around the world to “tune in” on any contestant in any race.<\/p>\n

This technology could fundamentally change just what it means to be a spectator at a sporting event. Imagine watching a\u00a0baseball game where a ball is hit into the outfield and you get to watch from the centerfielder’s viewpoint as he chases down the ball through a CCD camera in his cap.<\/p>\n

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Watching a Drone Race<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This new sport of drone racing has already spawned two “professional” leagues, the Drone Racing League (DRL) and MultiGP along with dozens of associations. DRL and MultiGP differ considerably in their rules with DRL actually providing\u00a0the drones to contestants, thereby making every drone\u00a0in the race as nearly identical as possible. MultiGP on the other hand has a published\u00a0set of specifications a drone must meet but allows the contestants to design and use their own drones. They feel this promotes innovation and competition.<\/p>\n

If you’d like to check out the Drone Racing League click on the link below.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/thedroneracingleague.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

If you’d like to check out MultiGP click on the link below.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.multigp.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

The entertainment side of advancing technology is surely going to be one of the biggest job markets in the coming years. I think Drone Racing will take its place alongside Video Games and Computer Graphics for movies as expanding industries. But there I go getting serious again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve recently noticed that my posts tend to be pretty serious. Of course Science is usually treated as a serious subject but even my reviews of movies and books\u00a0seem to be\u00a0straightforward rather than lighthearted. So today I’m going to talk about something just for the fun of it. Drone Racing! Now flying drones have been … Continue reading “Drone Racing”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[165,166],"class_list":["post-440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","tag-drone-racing","tag-radio-controlled"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":449,"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions\/449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}