hi all. big robotics news lately. my big reason/ trigger to write all this up at this moment is the birth of FPV “first person view” racing.[g] theres a new drone racing league organization and they are just recently releasing very slick, high-production, enthralling videos eg [g6] they have the feel of an edgy reality TV show, complete with interviews of the participants etc.; looking these over makes me think that the possibility of professional drone racing competitions is really not that far away. all it needs is fan/ buildup, and with racing/ adventures like these, that cant be far away. they also seem to behind a starwars podracing contest in NYC already with lots of buzz.[g5]

they seem to have debuted at the 2015 las vegas amazon web services conference, with a “re:play” party cosponsored by Intel… robotic sports is an old dream of mine going back to my teenage years and it looks like many others are picking up on this fast-emerging theme/ reality.

so robotics sports seems like it could be a huge phenomenon some day, and there are hints of this already with the restart of Battlebots and “the question to make giant robot battles the next spectator sport” going on in japan and elsewhere.[f]

there are daily advances such as drone helicopters, disneys robot that can drive up walls, humanoid robots, the 1second rubiks cube solver, drone swarms up to 50 controlled by single operator etc.[a]

initiatives announced by uber (for robotics cars), toyota, foxconn/ google (manufacturing), samsung, NSF, GM/ lyft, zuckerberg and his personal AI assistant, facebook drone, etc[b]

there is a lot of new regulation including the federal drone registry and local ordinances passed.[c]

the darpa robotics challenge made big headlines.[d]

the star wars BB8 robot is a big deal and available in the home for only $200, the story of its development is really engaging.[e]

news on automotive robotics [h] and there is big competition brewing over delivery drones by google and amazon.[i]

where is the future going? it seems the skys the limit and this area is continuing to heat up in big ways.