Drone racing


FPV drone racing is a sport type where participants control "drones", equipped with cameras while wearing head-mounted displays showing the live stream camera feed from the drones. Similar to full size air racing the goal is to complete a set course as quickly as possible. Drone racing began in Australia in late 2013 and early 2014 with a number of amateur pilots getting together for semi-organised races in Brisbane and Melbourne.

Drone racing technology

FPV flying means that pilots only see what the drone sees. This is accomplished by live streaming footage from a camera mounted on the nose of the drone. The image is transmitted via radio waves to goggles or monitor worn by the pilot. The remote control, drone, and goggles are all connected via radio and must transmit with sufficient speed and reliability to allow effective control. This technology is very new and is constantly being improved. FPV goggles on the market range from $50 to $500, with the more expensive goggles offering more and better features. Some of these features include a wide field of view, receiver diversity, digital HD video, head tracking, multiple frequency settings, and DVR recording functionality.
While the pilot always requires goggles, some drone racing organizations insist they should also be used among spectators alike by simply switching the frequency to the channel of the racer one wants to watch.
Any drone could be used to race, however competitive FPV racing leagues require drones to meet certain standards.
MultiGP, defines community produced specifications and allows participants to supply their own drones increasing competitiveness and innovation. For competition, aircraft are typically separated into classes, separating winged craft from rotorcraft; and also categorising by size and power.
The Drone Racing League makes all of the drones used in its events in house; pilots are supplied with drones, backup drones, and parts by the league itself, not independently.
DR1 Racing, utilizes an open spec class format that relies on each team in the series to supply their own drones, goggles and gear. Recently they added the Pro Class racing drone, which is currently the largest competitive drone racing format in the world.
Racing drones are designed to focus all of their energy into moving forward, as opposed to a photography/video drone which is focused more on hovering. A photography quadcopter design will typically have four motors configured in an X-pattern, all equally spaced apart. A racing model will typically have its four motors configured in an H-pattern configured to thrust the drone forward, not up. Another specific characteristic of drone racing is the number of propeller’s blades. 3-blade or 4-blade propellers have a shorter diameter allowing for a smaller frame with increased acceleration and maneuverability capabilities. Because of their light weight and electric motors with large amounts of torque, drones can accelerate and maneuver with great speed and agility. This makes for very sensitive controls and requires a pilot with quick reaction times and a steady hand.
BMW held the Drone Racing League’s 2018 Semi Finals race at their automobile museum, the BMW Welt, in Munich, Germany and sold out the event with 3,000 fans.

Course design

MultiGP provides community standards for their chapters to safely design their own courses and also generates individual pilot competition through their Universal Time Trial Track program which ranks pilots worldwide on standard measured courses.
DRL creates complex, three-dimensional racecourses in locations internationally. The Sci-Fi inspired tracks stretch around a mile-long.
DR1 Racing’s Champions Series is an outdoor racing circuit, flying in iconic locations around the world. Each location or race uses a mixture of environmental and manmade elements to create the course. The courses for the 2017 season include the Trona Pinnacles, the Mojave Boneyard at the Mojave Air and Space Port, the DHL Bonn Post Tower, Bunowen Castle in Ireland, Spike Island, and Isle of Man TT. DR1’s Micro Series uses indoor locations, with thematic elements.
Others such as the U.S. National Drone Racing Championship tend to conduct their races in open areas with less catastrophic obstacles.

Organizations

FPV racing organizations create regulations and rules to offer a fair race among its pilots.
Freespace also operates the FS500, a mid size racing drone, geared for live spectators and live broadcast, as a stepping stone for professional pilots getting into giant drone racing
The FAI partnered with Freespace Drone Racing in 2017 to professionalise the drone racing industry, across multiple international events, including the 2018 Barcelona Drone Racing World Cup.
The U.S. National Drone Racing Championship took place at the 2015 California State Fair. It was a 2-day event with a $25,000 cash prize that attracted over 120 competitors. This was the first event like this in the US, however other countries such as France, Australia and the UK had previously held similar events.
In 2016, the annual MultiGP Championship was held at the Academy of Model Aeronautics' headquarters in Muncie, Indiana where over 120 pilots competed by qualifying through the MultiGP Regional Series which consists of qualifying events and regional finals in 15 regions across the United States.

United States

is a global, professional, drone racing league with over 1000 chapters internationally including locations such as Australia, Asia, South Africa and Europe. There are no other drone racing leagues with the amount of registered pilots found within our community.

United Kingdom

The British Drone Racing League has recently setup and will operate a number of professional events. These events are currently being organized and will follow compliance from the CAA.

Funding

is the only league so far that has established major outside sources of funding. DRL has raised more than $30mm in venture capital backing from entities across the sports, technology and media space. Some notable investors include: Sky, Liberty Media, MGM, CAA, Hearst, WWE, Lux Capital, and RSE Ventures. In addition, DRL has a number of high-profile sponsors, including Allianz, BMW, the US Air Force, and Swatch. It also has other lines of business, including a licensing deal with Toy State, a toy manufacturing company best known for their Nikko remote control car line. Finally, DRL has content licensing deals with networks around the world including ESPN and Disney XD in the United States, Sky Sports in the UK, OSN in the middle east, and the Fox Sports in Asia. This funding has been crucial to the development of the league, and allows them to advertise and hold their races in better venues that will attract larger crowds.
Other smaller and less established leagues have found it difficult to find funding. At events like the one held at the California State Fair, funding comes from the state and from ticket sales at the event. Along with the difficulties of finding funding, it creates problems of finding good venues that create a challenge for the pilots and also have key turns and straightaways adding to the exhilaration of these events. US Army veteran Brett Velicovich has been involved in the launch of drone racing at the Dew Tour. Outside of DRL, and DR1 which has Mountain Dew as a sponsor, most smaller events are sponsored by FPV manufacturers such as Fat Shark, ImmersionRC and HobbyKing, DYS,T-Motor, EMAX, Team Black Sheep

Podcast

- The first podcast to cover drone racing, pilots and key people growing the FPV Community. The mission of the podcast is to help grow the community and document the history of FPV.
- This podcast is run by the following FPV pilots: Sweepings, Konasty, and Mr Steele. This podcast is aimed to discuss all things FPV related.