On November 7, 2018, young members of the sports air modeling community—engineers of Skypower — held a drone controlling master class at the Stary Oskol Technological Institute of NUST MISIS. The event was part of the RobotEra-2018 festival supported by TH Group and the Department of Automation and Information Technology of the Stary Oskol Technological Institute of of NUST MISIS.

Drone racing is a new and high-tech kind of sports, well-accepted in developed countries and considered the most technology-intensive. In November 2017, drone racing became an official kind of sports included in the Registry of Kinds of Sports of the Russian Federation by the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation, given the class F-3U. _____________________________________________

What is drone racing?

Drone racing is a competition between small FPV quadcopters conducted at special tracks featuring obstacles and marking. Drones are equipped with on-board cameras that convey the signal to the VR glasses' display. To control and steer the drones, two 2.4 GHz remote controllers are used.

After registration and opening ceremony, over 100 visitors— students of schools and robotics hobby groups, students of technical departments of colleges and universities, and employees of educational institutions— banded together in the open air to witness the DRONE SHOW.

The performance included spectacular drone racing, freestyle, and shows of Skypower pilots.

It's not an easy task to work the way up through the track: a drone reaches the speed of over 100 km/h and it has to perform steep maneuvers, go between arches, rings, and pass by obstacles, all without leaving the track. Drone racing is very entertaining yet extremely dangerous. The observers must follow the safety recommendations, never trespass the grid fence or cross the track border line. This sports requires high concentration, flawless accuracy, and immediate response.

In fact, drones are not only entertainment for aerobatics enthusiasts. Unmanned technologies are used by emergency services as such vehicles can replace man-controlled vehicles during hazardous operations that may impose risk to rescue officers or machines. Small-sized vehicles serve the purposes of emergency operations and can work in barely-accessible regions.

Skypower engineers demonstrated the operation of a prototype to be used in emergency service: it identifies emergencies, helps contain and mitigate accidents, and engages in search and rescue.

Having received a distress signal of a fire in a building with people, a rescue drone flies to the emergency site following the GPS coordinates. After arriving, the drone breaks the glass, finds the affected and persons and delivers protective equipment to them.

Engineers demonstrated the drone's unique capabilities in terms of hitting targets. We should note that hitting targets is one of the most difficult tasks handled by unmanned vehicles. Two vehicles successfully hit targets — which were balloons — despite the windy weather and accidental falls.

At the sports hall of the Studenchesky physical culture center, professional piloting performance took place in an enclosed training cube. Visitors and participants could test

virtual simulators, participate in sponsor's prize drawing, and even compete for the super prize.

Within the polygon, the company pilots exhibited their proficiency and performed master-class flights. The cube is fitted with cryptographics helping copters navigate and equipment for training sessions and competitions. Though the polygon is a structure for robotics training and competitions of the Innopolis University Olympiad of Robotics on "Intelligent flying robotics systems", the pilots brought a touch of drone racing and piloting to the event.

During the prize drawing—2 Arduino construction kit and mini quadcopter Tiny Whoop—were awarded.

At the end of the event, anyone could try themselves on simulators and test maneuvers with the use of VR kits.

It's quite a tough task to forecast drone racing perspectives in Russia so far. Despite dozens of competitions, there are still no regional communities, while the Belgorod

Region met this kind of sports at its early stage.

Reliability Technologies is interested in promoting drone racing and organizing large-scale sports piloting and robotics competitions in the Belgorod Region. Reliability Technologies and partners—Skypower engineers and the Department of Automation and Information Technology of the Stary Oskol Technological Institute of NUST MISIS — jointly work on facilitating the evolution of drone racing in the Belgorod Region from master classes and enthusiast competitions to being part of All-Russian and international championships.

Alexander Dubovitsky, in his welcome speech, touched on the importance of conducting a pilot master class at the Stary Oskol Technological Institute of the MISIS University and noted that drone racing and robotics competitions offer great staff potential for developing new knowledge-intensive technologies. "I hope you will go into a new hobby after today's master class, and then you will come to us to study and work," CEO of Reliability Technologies asserted.

We thank everyone who heavily contributed to making the event happen — organizers, guests, volunteers — for organizing the one-of-a-kind drone racing event in Belgorod.