Thursday, May 7, 2015

quadcopter racing is a thing now

https://medium.com/backchannel/on-the-field-with-drone-racers-58b753e79d6b

"Communities and serious competitions have been springing up from the Bay Area to France, sending drones through courses in the woods like the speeder bikes in Star Wars. Though there are models marketed for racing, most of these crafts are built in garages, either from scratch or with heavy modifications to products out of the box. Parrot doesn’t make models specifically for racing — yet. That’s why Philippe is here.
The impetus for this race is the Drones, Data X conference in Santa Cruz over the weekend. Heavyweights like Amazon, Google, GoPro and Facebook are all interested in how unmanned aerial vehicles can factor into their business. Facebook bought a solar-powered drone company to broadcast the Internet. Amazon may use them to deliver packages. GoPros are one of the most commonly mounted cameras on the nose of a drone. Who knows what Google wants with them but the company has shown an unending interest in robotics."

I see a local group of a few people setting up courses near the fairgrounds here. Looks like fun.

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