25/03/2016 Click - Short Edition

Drones.

Drones.

Drones.

A thing of constant fascination and innovation.

So much so, last year the government of the United Arab Emirates

held a contest with a massive $1 million prize up for grabs.

Teams from around the world were invited to take part

to demonstrate how their unmanned, aerial vehicles could improve lives.

We saw everything from fog dissipation to window cleaning.

Not content with last year's event,

Dubai is aiming to be the centre of drone innovation.

We have been back to the UAE to meet the pilots set to turn drone racing

professional and establish themselves as world champions.

Pilots, start your rotors.

32 of the best drone pilots from across the globe

have gathered in Dubai for the very first World Drone Prix.

At stake, a huge prize pot of $1 million with the first prize

of $250,000 for the fastest team.

They will be flying custom quadcopters

around this specially constructed circuit.

Don't worry, they won't move during racing because

this would make an already difficult track almost impossible.

You advise what the track should be like, the circuit itself.

What did you tell them what a good idea would be to introduce

to the track?

In the previous races, we have only done this

on the ground, we wanted to introduce elevation and get it up

off the ground so it can be an aerial sport.

So we introduced the tower and they have to go up and over

and it becomes a roller-coaster.

The pilots must complete 12 laps of the track,

making at least one pit stop per race to swap batteries.

We are in the crew's area backstage, if you like, at the race.

We will meet some of the teams.

This is the Dutch team.

We were just flying in a field, now we are in the top 32

of the world.

I am helping them set up the rig.

The competition have come in to help them set up their rig.

This is a drone racing team at work, relaxing just before the race.

Is this the pit crew technician doing the really hard work?

Soldering, rewiring things.

Those soldering irons will be busy because the drones are

fitted with a host of electronics including GPS tracking

and forward facing cameras.

And now the semifinals are about to begin.

Last-minute tweaks have been made,

and fighting talk rings out across the circuit.

Speed is my game, so we will do well.

Our team motto is "Do damage."

Didn't come here for second.

Navigators, pilots and pit crew take their positions.

The sun is going down, and the race gets off in earnest.

And they're off!

Time for me to get in on the action as well.

When I put these goggles on, I can see what the pilots

can see now, as they are racing.

Put them on, I get the pilot's eye view of the track.

All I can see from here is in standard definition.

They tried to do it in HD, but there was too much latency

and the pilots have to see exactly what is happening.

They have just had a crash.

Able to recover?

No.

That is, as they say, game over.

This is it, the final.

The tension in the air is palpable.

Confidence is diminished, game faces are on,

and now it is time for maximum focus.

How do you feel going into this race?

No pressure?

And they are off.

The video wasn't good, but it looked perfectly clean.

When you lose, you will blame something other than yourself.

There is a lot on the line, that's for sure.

So the final race has been run,

but there is some confusion as to who has actually won.

Ladies and gentlemen, to the track race award.

And it is going to...

Tornado from the UK!

It is a sweet victory for the 15-year-old British pilot,

Luke Bannister, as he scoops the $250,000 first prize,

which he will share with the team.

How does it feel to be a winner? Amazing.

I couldn't have done it without my team.

Dream come true, so honoured.

As fast as these things are,

keeping them up in the air for a length of time is a problem.

Pilots can get through 40 batteries in a day.

You generally only get about 15 to 20 minutes' life

out of one battery.

But a UK company is working on a way of increasing flight time

from minutes to hours.

And Jane has had an exclusive look at its first flight.

I have been flying drones for a few years now on Click.

Even managed to crash one.

Behind the scenes, we are always aware of how little time we have

to get the perfect shot before we run out of batteries.

Now there could be a natural solution

to substantially increased flight time.

Intelligent Energy in Loughborough

have been experimenting with hydrogen fuel-cell technology.

We have been given exclusive access to their first test flight.

It's the first time we've seen a drone

flying with a hydrogen fuel cell.

The fuel cell weighs about 1.6 kilograms.

This drone can fly for up to two hours on one fuel cell,

around six times longer than the average with a normal battery.

Refuelling with compressed hydrogen is faster,

taking just a few minutes versus recharging a battery.

Intelligent Energy have been testing this technology since 2001

but have focused on drone flights for the last 18 months.

Tell us how it works.

This is the fuel tank, so this is where the hydrogen is.

These are the fuel cells.

We have a fan that takes a small amount of heat away

but helps the airflow.

You combine the hydrogen with oxygen from the air with these fans,

and that produces electricity.

Well, hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe

and is usually used in industry.

In the industrial industry, we are looking at agriculture,

oil and gas, mapping, forestry and any other industries

that needs drones for inspection or otherwise.

We will get into the consumer space,

but initially our target market is the commercial space.

Increasing flight time to an hour, or even up to two hours,

reduces their costs considerably.

The company expects to have fuel cells

ready for commercial use next year.

But we will have to wait a bit longer for a consumer version.

Today I have gone back to school.

I am learning to programme the new chip on the block.

The data is going from the computer...

The BBC has finally unleashed the Micro Bit.

Announced for July, the tiny programmable computer is being

given free to a million schoolkids in the UK,

in the hope it will inspire a new generation programmers.

In just a few minutes, it is possible to create short

programmes that turn the Micro Bit into a name badge,

roboracer or even a spacecraft.

We are learning how to turn it into a dice, so when you shake it

you get a random number between one and six.

Problem is, it's giving a number between zero and six.

The good thing is, everyone is already trying to solve that

problem to get rid of the zero.

The Micro Bit is not a fully fledged computer like a Raspberry Pi,

it is more like an introduction to the idea of programming,

more simple.

But it does have an LED display, thermometer,

motion sensors, a compass and Bluetooth.

But even if it's not directly competing with other widget

computers, it has arrived later than promised, which may make it

difficult to incorporate into lesson plans

for the remainder of this school year.

It is using everything I have learnt at school,

but it is opening me up to a lot more opportunities,

such as allowing me to use the LED.

You can take it anywhere with you, as well.

Excellent, did you enjoy it?

Yes!

Thank you very much.

Let's hope it does prove as inspirational as the BBC Micro

and the whole home-computer revolution of the 1980s.

That is exactly why I got into this lark in the first place.

That is all we have got time for this week.

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Thanks for watching, and we will see you soon.