Air racing was a powerful driver of both technology and public awareness in the early days of aviation. Motor racing has been the proving ground for advances in the automotive industry. Will the emergence of drone racing do the same for unmanned aircraft?
Today’s multicopter small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are designed to hover and take pictures. They are easy to fly, but slow and susceptible to wind and weather. As developers look ahead to uses such as delivering emergency medicines, or rapidly clearing a building, speed and agility enter the picture.
The growing sport of “first-person view” (FPV) drone racing is introducing audiences to competitions where small UAS maneouvre through complex indoor courses at speeds exceeding 80 mph.
The Drone Racing League (DRL) conducted its first race inside the Miami Dolphins stadium on Feb. 22, the first of six events leading up to a world championship planned for the end of 2016. Twelve pilots competed in the initial Level 1 race, with four making it through to the finals.
Although in its infancy, drone racing has already experienced rapid advances in technology, particularly in radio communications and control software, says Ryan Gury, DRL’s product director. Pilots competing in the league all fly the same DRL-developed high-performance small quadcopter.
In FPV racing, pilots wear goggles that show the image from a camera on the UAS. Reliable radio communications are essential to avoid latency or dropouts that could result in loss of control. The goggles project analog video to eliminate the latency in digital conversion, he says.
The UAS fly a 1-km-long (0.6-mi.), three-dimensional course and score points by flying through gates. Gury says DRL installs a large radio-frequency infrastructure equivalent to a cellular network around the course to ensure continuous communications using custom radios.
The only moving parts in the quadcopters are the electric motors; flight control is managed by varying motor speed. Gury says rapid advances in electronic speed control technology have already occurred, even from the first event in December to the Miami race. “They no longer waffle in wind, but fly like a razor blade.”
Where consumer small UAS are designed for ease of use and carry GPS, accelerometer, altimeter and other sensors, DRL’s racing drone uses only a gyroscope to provide attitude and rate information. With all competitors flying the same UAS, this ensures that flying skill is the differentiator, he says.
For the pilot, “the pure sense of speed in FPV racing is more immersive than in a racing car or motorcycle,” Gury says. Drones race four at a time, and complete the course in about 90 sec. The tiny UAS wear hundreds of specifically colored LEDs so spectators can tell them apart.
Source: Aviation Week