An Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Power Autonomous Drone recently emerged victorious at one-A-A-A-A-Ai AI vs Human Drone Racing event. The competition was hosted by the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL) in collaboration with the Drone Champions League (DCL) as part of the Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC). The two -day program, which saw participation from several countries, was held in Ednene Marina Hall, Abu Dhabi, UAE. The winner AI Drone belonged to the Mawlab (Tu Delt) in the Netherlands, who also won two other races in the event.
Ae drone beats human pilots
One in Press releaseA2RL announced the winners with four separate racing events. Mawlab’s AI drone won three of them, while Vietnamese team TII Racing won a race. 14 international teams qualified for the final week, and the top four of them were upgraded to compete in four separate races.
The participating countries include UAE, Netherlands, Austria, South Korea, Czech Republic, Mexico, Turkey, China, Spain, Canada and United States teams. These teams were a mixture of University Labs, Research Institutes and Startups. Additionally, the human drone pilot was the finalist from the DCL Falcon Cup.
According to the press release, each team brought a standardized drone equipped with NVidia Jetson Oin NX Computing Module, a forward-facing camera and an inertial measurement unit for onboard perception and control. These drones were completely dependent on any human input, video footage and real-time processing of making AI-powered decisions. A2RL created a complex race environment where drones can reach a speed of 150 kmph.
Some elements of the race course included wide gate spaceing, irregular light and minimal visual markers. To further increase the difficulty, the rolling shutter camera was used on the drone. The company said that it tested the ability to give fast and stable performance under the conditions of demanding teams participating.
Mawlab (Tu Dail) won the AI Grand Challenge after setting the fastest time on the 170 meter course, completing two laps (22 gates) in 17 seconds. AI drone also defeated a top human pilot in AI vs mankind. In addition, the team also claimed victory in the AI-only drag race.
On the other hand, TII Racing won the multi-drain format, where all finalists ran at the same time.