Drone Race @ Sendai No. 2

JAPAN DRONE NATIONALS.

The Japan National Qualifier for the International Drone Race Tournament to be held in Seoul.

It was held at XEBIO ARENA in Sendai.

Top men’s and women’s pilots from overseas also participated.

FPV race.

The athletes are called pilots.

They control their drones with real time video sent from attached cameras to an HMD and compete for time.

With skill, these can be piloted at speeds of over 100 km h.

The fuselage has a maximum length of 330mm, there are 3 6 inch propellers, and radio waves are used for radio control.

President Kodera of the Japan Drone Race Association (JDRA), which organized the event, said, “it is a new sport.”

Using radio waves to fly aircraft with digital video. It is IT, VR and IoT.

Sendai City will tackle drone and automated driving as a National Strategy Special Zone.

This is an event realized through the cooperation of local government with private sponsors such as NTT Docomo and Fujitsu.

According to President Kodera, there are two tasks.

First, radio waves.

In Japan, it is necessary to apply for an amateur wireless radio license and file a station opening application, but neither of these are necessary in South Korea or China, so it raises difficulties for Japan in holding an international tournament.

The other is funding.

Guaranteeing the income of pilots. This is a global challenge. In order to foster and maintain competent operators with a longing to be a part of this world, having a mechanism for the flow of money is a prerequisite. I want to commercialize it, with live events and a distribution system.

Everything is exactly like the way that e-sports faces this issue. It is a matter of coordination among systems involved and businessization.

As drones and automation progress, and the programming advances as well, situations where drones are useful for the public interest such as surveillance and disaster prevention will increase. But the skill of human pilots will continue to be questioned. I think that the necessity of drone training will increase.