System and method for conducting a drone race or game

Abstract

A system and method of conducting a drone race or game in a contained area is disclosed herein. The system may also include cameras attached to the drones and the video feed from the camera is transmitted to a computing device used to control the drone and to display the video feed. The system may also use computing devices and monitors to display the video feeds from the cameras attached to the drones. The system may also be configured as a game with information points.

1 . A system for conducting a drone race, comprising:
 a plurality of RF sensor readers attached to a plurality of obstacle structures wherein each sensor reader detects a change in an amplitude of a radio transmission received from a radio transmitter of a drone;   wherein at least one RF sensor reader of the plurality of RF sensor readers sends a customized timestamp to a server in response to a detection by the at least one RF sensor reader of (i) an initial rising change and (ii) a subsequent falling change in amplitude of the radio transmission,   wherein the customized timestamp includes a time between (i) the initial rising change and (ii) the subsequent falling change in amplitude of the radio transmission,   wherein the server records a passage of the drone past the obstacle structure associated with the RF sensor reader that detects the (i) the initial rising change and (ii) the subsequent falling change in amplitude, wherein the passage of the drone past the obstacle structure coincides in time with the time included in the customized timestamp.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein a camera of the drone transmits a video feed via the radio transmission. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the radio transmitter of the drone is a temporarily attached RFID tracking tag transmitting in response to interrogation. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of cameras overlooking the drone race, wherein the server is configured to receive a plurality of video feeds from the plurality of cameras overlooking the drone race. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the server determines a race position of the drone using the customized timestamp by mapping the race position at the time included in the customized timestamp to a location of the obstacle structure having the RF sensor reader that detects the (i) the initial rising change and (ii) the subsequent falling change in amplitude. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the system comprises a leader board coprocessor configured to map a plurality of locations of a plurality of sensor readers attached to a plurality of obstacle structures of a race course in response to detection by the plurality of sensor readers of initial rising changes and subsequent falling changes in the amplitude of the radio transmission. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 2 , further comprising a FPV goggle, wherein the FPV goggle receives and displays the video feed. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the system comprises a leader board coprocessor configured to remove the drone from a leader board in response to the sensor reader not detecting the drone for an elapsed period of time. 
     
     
         9 . A method of conducting a drone race, comprising:
 providing a sensor reader to detect a radio transmitter attached to a drone;   transmitting a customized timestamp to a server by the sensor reader in response to an amplitude change of a transmitted signal of the radio transmitter attached to the drone; and   determining a position of the drone at a time corresponding to the customized timestamp,   wherein the position corresponds to a position of the sensor reader that indicates the amplitude change.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the radio transmitter is a wireless tracking tag and the sensor reader is configured to detect and read the wireless tracking tag. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising receiving the radio transmission by a receiver separate from the sensor reader and providing a video feed from the radio transmission by the receiver to at least one graphical display. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the at least one graphical display is an FPV goggle. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising generating a dynamic graphical map comprising a course of the drone race and generating a location of the drone superimposed on the dynamic graphical map. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the radio transmitter is associated with a camera attached to the drone and emitting a transmitted signal that is received by a video receiver separate from the sensor reader. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 generating a leader board display for display on a graphical user interface, wherein the leader board display comprises a plurality of received transmissions from a plurality of video cameras, and position information for the drone, and   wherein the leader board display further comprises a dynamic graphical map that updates a map position of a graphical representation of the drone.   
     
     
         16 . A leader board coprocessor of a race server of a drone race system comprising a processor and a tangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the processor, the tangible, non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
 receiving, by a drone classification engine, a self-reported classification data from a first drone via a first sensor transmitting the self-reported classification data to a sensor reader of the drone race system;   wherein the drone classification engine directs a leader board generator to display the first drone within a first drone class;   transmitting, by a race channel controller, a leader board object to a network for distribution to at least one of a race site computing device and a remote computing device;   instantiating, by a drone instantiator, a second drone for insertion into the leader board object in response to detecting by the sensor reader a second drone.   
     
     
         17 . The leader board coprocessor of the race server of the drone race system comprising the processor and the tangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the processor according to  claim 16 , the tangible, non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations further comprising:
 timing, by a timing engine, a race of the first drone and the second drone.   
     
     
         18 . The leader board coprocessor of the race server of the drone race system comprising the processor and the tangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the processor according to  claim 17 , wherein the timing the race comprises:
 (a) ascertaining by the sensor reader a change in amplitude of a first transmitted signal of the first drone by the sensor reader;   (b) generating, by the sensor reader, a first customized timestamp including a time coinciding with the change in the amplitude of the first transmitted signal;   (c) ascertaining by the sensor reader a change in amplitude of a second transmitted signal of the second drone by the sensor reader; and   (d) generating, by the sensor reader a second customized timestamp including a time coinciding with the change in the amplitude of the second transmitted signal.   
     
     
         19 . The leader board coprocessor of the race server of the drone race system comprising the processor and the tangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the processor according to  claim 18 , the tangible, non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations further comprising:
 transmitting by the race channel controller the leader board object to the network for distribution.   
     
     
         20 . The leader board coprocessor of the race server of the drone race system comprising the processor and the tangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the processor according to  claim 19 , wherein the distribution is to at least one social media account wherein the leader board object is configured to update the at least one social media account with an event data, wherein the event data is shareable.