Lei Feng network (search "Lei Feng network" public concern) by: author of this article Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College, source robohub, compiled by Lei Feng network exclusive, refused to reprint without permission!
Last weekend, 145 participants from around the world gathered at Governors Island in New York to participate in the second National UAV Championship. The winner was Zach Thayer of Laguna Neguet, California, for the Big Whoop team. The most exciting thing is that ESPN participated in the live broadcasting of the top national sports system for the first time.
The participating drones are small in size, with a number of highly-operational horizontal rotors. Their maximum speed can exceed 80 miles per hour, so the batteries will run out in two to three minutes. In the past two years, this event has encountered many unimaginative investment intentions. On August 5th, MarketWatch announced that the parties “will spend on drone competitionsâ€â€”including not only ESPN, but also sponsors such as PepsiCo, GoPro, and accounting firms Ernst & Young and Amerisys Insurance. The UAV Sports Association is the organizer of this tournament. It has previously organized drone competitions in more than 40 countries around the world. The latest 24-hour uninterrupted digital channel, Drone TV, began broadcasting in July. In addition to the continuous broadcast of major events, there is an hour-long column show every week. The drone competition special report was recently broadcast on the Science Channel and Discovery Channel to introduce this unmanned flight system. The increasing degree of attention has given rise to the birth of a series of leagues that compete fiercely on fan resources and investment. Next, we will talk in depth about everything about drone competitions.
Lay the foundation of technologyThe recent four technological breakthroughs drove the drone development of drones:
1. The first person perspective (FPV) video system transmits the live camera signal placed on the drone to the simulation goggles. By using FPV, Flyboy will have better accuracy and agility;
2. With the development of engines, electronic speed controllers and batteries with high discharge rates will make acceleration and precision control a reality;
3. Lightweight cameras and live video converters can transmit live signals to goggles so that pilots can avoid obstacles at high speeds;
4. The lightweight, shock-proof body structure made of carbon fiber was specially created for entry-level drones.
Retrospective history The UAV race of the Eight Children's Classics has only recently started, but FPV technology, one of the key elements of this event, has a long history of development. In an article in 2010, Smithsonian's Air & Space magazine believed that the origin of FPV's remote control aircraft dates back to the late 1990s when cameras and converters had become light enough to adapt to small drones. The first UAV carrying FPV equipment is very similar to the Black Sheep team's Raphael “Trappy†Pirker, which we met today. This team had a flight around the Statue of Liberty in New York and gained a lot of momentum. High popularity. In 2014, the RC flying club from eastern France uploaded a video of a “Star Wars†style game in the local forest on YouTube. The total number of videos watched exceeded 3 million.
Almost at the same time, the FPV Explorers & Racers team founded in California and drone enthusiasts from Australia gathered in the empty factory and parking lot for indoor competition.
In April 2015, the first Santa Cruz FPV drone competition was supported by the American Modeling Association. This association was created specifically for aeromodelling enthusiasts. In the end, Zoe Stumbaugh (also known as Zoe Full Throttle) won the game and became a net red.
In July 2015, the first national UAV Championship organized by Rotor Sports was held in Sacramento, California. The event attracted a total of more than 100 contestants. Chad Nowak, a leader in UAV flight from Australia known as FinalGlideAUS, won the Grand Slam of the triumph of regular, free and team competitions.
In March 2016, the customized orbit of the global drone competition and the one million dollar prize attracted 150 participants to Dubai. This game is not affiliated with drone tournaments. The final champion was Luke Bannister, a 15-year-old from England who received $250,000. A month later, he again won the championship in a drone competition held at Wembley Stadium in London.
In early 2016, the U.S. drone league opened. It seeks to build drone races into "future sports." Currently, this league has been held in power plants, NFL sports grounds and an abandoned shopping mall. In other competitions, the pilots can use their own R & D products, but here, the flying players can only use the league uniform specifications of drones.
How drone competition worksThe importance of drone competition is speed and operability. The game lasted for a short period of time, about a minute or so. Accidents occur from time to time. The most popular form of competition is where a group of flying hands perform an obstacle game at the same time. After the first round of flight, the first drone to reach the finish line wins.
During the race, the pilots will use FPV goggles to show the real-time picture of drone flight. They are very dependent on this real-time transmission system: Even minor deviations and jumps can cause accidents.
Unlike most consumer four-axis UAVs that have wheels in an X-shaped configuration, many of the participating UAVs are H-shaped. They are smaller than the popular Dajiang Wizard or 3DR solo drone. Compared with the Dajiang Elf 4, the classic model is only about 250 mm wide (if it is diagonal). What's more, they fly faster than ordinary consumer drones. Entry-level drones can run at speeds of up to 80 miles per hour, while Dajiang Wizard 4 has a top speed of only 45 miles. In other leagues, most contestants have their own drones, but some amateur drone suppliers, including Horizon Hobby, have begun offering ready-made entry drones.
National Geographic magazine has collated the attention outline for participation in FPV drone competitions. MultiGP has a list of global drone competition clubs. In the future, potential flying skaters can use their online virtual systems provided by UAV League courses to test their equipment.
Landform of drone competition venues With the investment of ESPN, GoPro, Mountain Dew and other major investors, the major leagues are competing for the hegemony. The drone league has currently won over 8 million investments, including 1 million from RSE Ventures, owner of Stephen Ross of Mia Dolphins. The opener was held in February 2016 at the New Miami Stadium in Dolphin. The second game was held in March, but related videos have not yet been uploaded to the Internet. The league created its own website, droneracingsafety.org, in early April. There are many details about drone competitions.
The UAV Sports Federation, which hosted the 2016 National Championship, will host a world championship in Hawaii in October. By then, ESPN will broadcast this event. With the establishment of an earlier abortion of similar organizational alliances (such as RotorSports and IDRA, where RotorSports organized the 2015 National Championship), in July this year, the UAV Sports League was officially established.
IDRA was the partner of World Drone Prix in Dubai. When IDRA was preparing to host the 2016 National Championship, they signed the initial live broadcast terms with ESPN. Later, when this event was sponsored by the UAV Sports Federation, IDRA undertook the Korean GIGA UAV Master World Championship, which was held in the same weekend as the National Championships. Obviously, this association does not have a clear plan for the future.
The latest DR1 game series was released this summer. They started the opening match at the Sepulveda Dam in Los Angeles. The game was hosted by Mountain Dew and broadcast live on Twitch. DR1 is probably the most prolific content producer at the moment. In addition to online resources, the early DR1 also put resources on Discovery Channel and Science Channel.
The DR1 has also established a partnership with the MultiGP UAV Competition Alliance. It has more than 700 races and attracted more than a thousand flying hands. The MultiGP contacted grassroots groups very groundly in the 2016 UAV Championship - on the weekend of Labor Day, they made a sensation in the finals held by the Mansi Modeling Association of Indiana.
Local organizations often organize regional drone competitions. One of the most famous events is Las Vegas's Xtreme Drone Circuit, which includes exciting projects such as leaping laps. On September 9, it will hold its third tournament with a prize of 10,000 U.S. dollars.
Drone Competition Regulations U.S. drone competition rules are numerous, and the rules related to the first person's main perspective are the cornerstones for this sports technology to be able to stand on foot. In June 2014, the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States explained a special regulation for aircraft models - it claims that these rules "limit the use of visual augmentation equipment," including "goggles that provide a first-person primary view from an aircraft. On August 29th, the 107 Regulations that people longed for long ago finally came into effect. It allowed people to install independent visual equipment on commercial drones, allowing them to use first-person primary viewing systems. At the same time, Section 107 also limits the use of drones by those who are not involved in drone operations.
However, in light of the fact that the flight of the model aircraft was removed from the regulations of the Federal Aviation Administration according to the Regulations 112-95, 336(c) of the Public Law, we can hardly define drone competitions aimed at commercial profitability in a broad sense. It is purely hobbyistic or entertaining.
Indoor events are not regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States. Currently, UAV tournaments are held in indoor buildings such as abandoned shopping malls. The Federal Aviation Administration also expressed interest in drone flight - an article on IEEE Spectrum in August 2015 mentioned that two representatives of the agency participated in the 2015 UAV Championship.
Looking to the futureParticipants, organizations, drone contest entrepreneurs and investors all want this new race to develop along the track of competitive video games. In 2016, this event will bring up to 463 million in revenue. Of course, one of the obstacles is the extravagance and waste of funds in the league. One contestant named Zoe Stumbaugh took the example of professional football: If it weren’t the 1966 Super Bowl, the sport would not suddenly succeed.
Individuals hope to be able to become famous overnight by uploading videos on YouTube or Airvuz, a popular video site among drone contestants. Charpu is the video column name from Carlos Puertolas in Los Angeles. He now has the most fans on YouTube. Last year he went to Times Magazine.
A purposeful drone competition course will be launched soon. The Flying Sports Federation built in San Francisco has already held the "Darq Traq" course in an innovative hangar. Dajiang, the world’s largest consumer drone maker, also opened a 15,000-square-foot drone driving range in Seoul in mid-August.
Drone events are a very good selling point. This is the reason why virtual reality has become mainstream. Matt Higgins of RSE Ventures told ESPN that drone competition “has all the elements of modern sports: when Twitch lived in a World Class Formula 1 tournament... first-person perspective can make VR experience more compelling.†The problem is that The technology is not yet able to project the first-person lens into high-definition devices - even the flying players say that the dizziness caused by high-speed movement will take a while to disappear.
In the end, the flying man can get rid of their manual controller. In April of this year, engineering students from the University of Florida hosted the first brain-controlled drone game. The contestants slowly controlled the Dajiang Wizards to sprint forward on a yard of yards.
Via robohub