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Pro drone racing confronts its amateur roots
"The drone racing league is a sport. We are a league. We do an annual season. We have a clear rule system and scoring system," Nick Horbaczewski, founder and CEO of the Drone Racing League (DRL), enthuses in a small business suite located on the second floor of the Circus Circus Casino in Las Vegas. With a deal with ESPN in the bag, his league is poised to bring the sport mainstream, and within moments of our introduction, he's let me know he's serious.
What it takes to be a drone racer
One cold, dreary afternoon in 2014, Jordan Temkin took his drone to Chautauqua Park in Boulder, Colorado. He put on a pair of goggles that filled his view with the live video feed from the drone's tiny camera. He'd built the drone frame from scratch using a 3D printer, finishing it with parts he'd bought online. It took about a month for it to take off straight. Eventually, it could hover around his backyard, so one day he took it to the park and began gingerly flying around.
These drone racing goggles could spark the sport's digital era
Drones with digital video capabilities already exist, but in the racing world, analog is still king. For now, at least. Fat Shark has been the go-to maker of racing drone goggles for several years, and it's about to double down on digital, which in turn could be the nudge toward dropping analog feeds that the sport needs. The $350 Base HD is the company's first all-digital headset, and it comes with a fancy new 720p LCoS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon) display improved brightness, contrast ratios and clarity and a 28 degree field of view (this might sound small, but drone racing doesn't call for a huge FOV).
Drone Racing League season two starts tomorrow on ESPN
In case you were looking for a new sport to follow now that the NBA and NHL seasons have ended, ESPN is giving something different a shot, and it's not esports. The second season of the Drone Racing League -- now branded Allianz World Championship Series -- is about to get started Tuesday night at 8PM ET, with pilots directing identical Racer3 aircraft through larger courses than last year. The drones themselves are more powerful and rugged enough to possibly survive a collision, which DRL head of product Ryan Gury explained "also makes it a much more sexy and attractive drone." Of course, if you're spending this week tuned in to draft / free agency news, the entire broadcast schedule is included below.
ESPN's Drone Racing League returns with faster, bigger races
Last year, I asked a simple question: Can drone racing become as big as eSports? While we wait to find out, one of the leading race organizers -- the Drone Racing League -- is making all the right moves this year to make that answer yes. One of the keys to achieving that, the DRL hopes, is the introduction of the Racer3 drone, which will be the standard craft all pilots in the DRL race with. Unsurprisingly, it's more powerful and agile than its predecessor (the Racer2, obviously) and could be the shot in the arm the sport needs to go mainstream. The Racer3 should make races -- which air on ESPN starting June 20th -- even more thrilling, luring more fans (and, by association, lucre) to the game.
In 2017, drones are getting faster, more fun and easier to fix
Drones aren't new to CES, but it's only in the last year or two that they got their own dedicated area in the convention hall. But, drones are meant to fly free, not behind netting, so some bright spark invented the Drone Rodeo: an annual off-site event where the latest and greatest in UAVs could do their thing as nature intended. The event is back this year, and once again it provided a pretty good snapshot of what's going to be hot in the drone world in 2017.
The UK's first pro drone race will be hosted in London next June
With backing from big broadcasters like ESPN and Sky Sports, drone racing is already making its mark on TV. The Drone Racing League's (DRL) inaugural five race season is now two races deep, having visited Miami and Los Angeles, but the company is already thinking ahead to next year's championship. After revealing that the UK would host its first professional drone race in 2017 back in September, the DRL today confirmed that the winner-takes-all season finale will be hosted at London's iconic Alexandra Palace on June 13th.
Drone racing is coming to Sky Sports next month
Drone racing's rise to prominence is hardly a surprise. The sport combines a new, rapidly improving technology with skilful pilots and bombastic, three-dimensional courses. If you've ever watched a heat, either in person or online, you'll know it's an exhilarating spectacle. With this in mind, it's no bombshell to hear that Sky has made an investment in the Drone Racing League (DRL), a professional outfit backed by Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross. As part of its $1 million cash injection, Sky will be showing the entire tournament on its new Sky Sports Mix channel in the UK.
ESPN streams its first drone racing event at 1PM ET
Just when we were getting used to ESPN and eSports coverage, the worldwide leader in sports is adding another new event to its slate: drone racing. It's not on the broadcast channels yet, but today and tomorrow at 1PM ET on ESPN3 (probably via the WatchESPN app) you can watch the 2016 U.S. National Drone Racing Championships.
ICYMI: Deaf translation gloves, mind-controlled UAVs and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-28536{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-28536, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-28536{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-28536").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Today on In Case You Missed It: Two college students from the University of Washington won an invention prize at a MIT competition for their SignAloud gloves, which translate the words deaf or mute people sign into spoken words. University of Florida held a drone race with mind-control headsets as the controllers. And China's National University of Defense Technology made a robot that can tase people. If you too know about (and marvel at) the all-girl, pop metal band BabyMetal, check out the Super Mario Maker version. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
UF researchers let people race drones using their minds
As drone racing gets faster, cheaper and more mainstream, it was only a matter of time before drone pilots ditched the controller and made the leap to an actual brain-computer interface, as these researchers from the University of Florida did last week.
ESPN will start covering drone racing in August
ESPN is already taking advantage of the growing interest in eSports, and the network is hopping on the drone trend, too. Today, the International Drone Racing Association (IDRA) announced a "multi-year" deal with ESPN for coverage of its competitive UAV events. The network's first broadcast of drone racing and its first-person views will be August's US National Drone Racing Championships from Governor's Island in New York City. Live coverage of the event will stream on the WatchESPN app, so you'll need a cable subscription to follow along on a mobile device or streaming gadget. If you can't tune in then, there will be a one-hour special that recaps the action as well.
Drone racing is about to get cheaper and easier
Those cool videos from drone races may have tempted you at some point, but where do you start? Traditionally, you'd have to spend at least a couple hundred dollars on components, plus many more on a remote controller and a monitor or goggles. Not to mention the several hours needed for assembling the drone. Too much hassle? Don't worry, because RotorX is now offering its latest micro racing quadcopter, the RX122 Atom V2, either fully assembled or as a quick DIY kit that apparently takes less than 30 minutes -- not five to ten hours like the V1 -- to put together. Better yet, the ready-to-fly version can include a controller with a built-in monitor for a grand total of just $499 for the first 50 backers on Indiegogo, and then $549 for the next 200.
The best drone racer in the world just won $250,000
What did you do with your weekend? 15-year-old Luke Bannister just won $250,000 by beating out 150 teams in the first World Drone Prix, held in Dubai. Drone racing is now a very real thing, with racers using camera-mounted navigation to steer their craft around a track -- and through or around obstacles. Even if you didn't place first, the Drone Prix offered a prize pool totaling $1 million.
