At the football ground of IIT Madras, the calmness of a pleasant Saturday morning is interrupted by the buzzing of small-sized drones that criss-cross the skies like insects, with some reaching a speed of more than 150 kilometres per hour..
The drones, operated by pilots, are made to pass through hurdles or ‘gates’ of different sizes designed, installed on the ground, for the drone racing event organised as part of IIT Madras’s annual technology festival, Shaastra.
The racing event, organised in the format of First Person View (FPV) drone racing, is a sport that is catching on fast in India, says Karan A. Kamdar, founder and president of the Indian Drone Racing League that is organising the racing at IIT Madras.
“We have around 2000 drone pilots registered across the country. We organise racing at almost all IITs and National Institutes of Technology. It is not just students, but drone enthusiasts and hobbyists as young as 12-year-olds are our participants,” he adds.
K. Ragul, a Masters student from Sri Krishna College of Technology in Coimbatore, says he has been participating in the event for two years now. “The design of the drone and skill of the pilot are equally important in this competition,” he says.
In this format of racing, the pilots do not navigate by looking at the drones, but instead wear eye-gear that feeds the visual from the camera mounted on the drone. “What we get is a view similar to that of a pilot from the cockpit. We navigate based on that,” he adds.
J. Janarthanan, an engineering graduate and a drone enthusiast, who also teaches drone design, says that what matters in terms of design is the weight and ability for quick manoeuvrability. “We buy components and assemble our own drones. You can fine-tune a lot of parameters in terms of speed and its ability to turn and tilt. We try to make it as lightweight as possible,” he adds.
Stating that these drones can reach a maximum speed of even 180-200 kilometres per hour, Ragul says that such drones are now being used to capture high-speed car and bike racing events.
Janarthanan says that high power batteries are used to achieve the speed. “Other drones used for certain utilities like food delivery or photography are heavy, but the basic design concepts are the same,” he says.
P. Jeevith, a student from IIT Madras and coordinator of the racing event, says that this was the first time drone racing was organised as a competition in the campus. “Previously, we had organised a show with professional drone pilots,” he said.
Mr. Karan says that night drone racing is also becoming popular as a show. “With colourful LED bulbs attached and with the kind of manoeuvring they do, the event is visually appealing. The previous event we organised in IIT Madras was one such event,” he adds
He says that China, North Korea, and Australia are some of the countries where drone racing is organised in a big way. “We have pilots who are participating in events in these countries,” he says.
In terms of regulation, he says that the drones used in the racing fall under micro (less than 500 grams) and nano (less than 250 grams) categories. “We do not need permission for these categories. For micro category, we just need to inform the police, which we do,” he adds.
“This is not an expensive sport. Interested persons can start building a good drone for around ₹10,000. However, there are people who spend amounts as high as ₹3 lakh,” he says.
