How Are FPV Drones Used in Filming Race Cars?

by Damyy L

First Person View Drones are a fast approaching form of technology that have advanced really quickly over the past century.It is made use of in several fields to carry out tasks more efficiently such as surveillance,aerial photography,search and rescue operations.They are used alot in farming to carry out a soil analysis and detect the moisture content as well as the amount of organic nutrients available in the soil; in the medical field drones are used in the medical field to supply blood across cities and nation.The focus of this article is how drones are applied in the filming of race cars.

First Person View Drones(FPV):

FPV’s as the name implies are drones that have embedded camera systems within the mechanism of that drone that allows the pilot to view what the drones sees.There are two main types of FPV drone; Freestyle and Racing drones. Freestyle FPV drones mostly involve navigating tight corners, under trees, around obstacles and through small openings all while doing tricks.These kinds of drones are the ones you see do cool tricks called acrobatic flying.Freestyle pilots perform daring maneuvers, flips, rolls, and tricks, all while capturing breathtaking footage through the drone's camera. It's a fusion of piloting skill and artistic expression.Whereas Racing FPV drones are more precise in their navigations and are designed for speed and agility,their aim is to to cover a distance in the shortest time possible.

A drone is made up of four motors called quads,these quads allow the drones to move around. Freestyle FPV  drones are more relaxed however racing FPV drones need the quads to be tightened to navigate turns and challenging obstacles.Drones use rotors (propellers and a motor) for propulsion,movement and control. Spinning blades push air down. According to Newton’s third law which states that when two objects interact,they exert equal and opposite forces on each other which means that as the spinning blades of the rotor  pushes down on the air, the air pushes  back up on the rotor.How the drone moves up is by increasing the speed(thrust) of the propeller blades so that there is an upward force that is greater than the weight due to gravity. There are four basic camera movement techniques :  panning, tilting up/down, dolly shot.The racing of  FPV drones can cover everything more easily using the movement techniques. The movement of the camera is necessary to show an object in character and its situation, and also helps create tension, thereby maximally supporting the performance of a sports documentary.

Generally the filming of cars racing is quite challenging in the sense that you’ll need specific cameras and lenses to capture the movement of the cars in great detail. Racing FPV drones are controlled by a remote control that the pilot uses to navigate through obstacles and perform aerial maneuvers with greater precision and control than with a traditional line-of-sight view.FPV drones provide a unique and cinematic footage that would be  impossible to achieve with other camera types.The live video feed allows the pilot to adjust the camera’s angle and settings in real time for optimal results.Overall drones make the filming of cars racing more effective to capture the race in a lot more detail. Although drones are capable of being coherent in the filming of race cars,they are not predominantly used to record live races because they can pose safety risks due to the fact that they have a fairly high probability of breaking down and falling apart due to factors such as weather. Engineers are currently working on this inability in order to move forward with the application of drone technology in the car race filming industry. Recently, a team of engineers called the Dutch Drone gods customized a first-person view (FPV) drone that can run the whole Grand Prix lap of Silverstone Circuit in the United Kingdom at the same speed as Red Bull’s most recent Formula One vehicle, the RB19. According to the Dutch Drone gods website eight months of dedication were put into the engineering and testing.On the very first lap, they successfully followed the RB19 around the track at a full speed reaching 310 km/h on Wellington Straight and the Hanger Straight. This groundbreaking achievement marked their first successful lap with an F1 car.

The use of FPV drones have brought many advantages in the world of videography. In addition to the relatively cheaper cost, compared with the use of helicopters that are normally used to film cars racing. Drones are also small in size and can be more flexible to reach a variety of situations without causing a lot of noise pollution. Furthermore because First Person View drones allow the pilot to see exactly what the drone sees. It gives the audience precise and ultra-smooth footage of the cars racing in action.