September 8, 2018

  • Lockheed Martin launches $250 MILLION competition to develop AI drone that can outperform a human pilot

    Drone 11   Drone 12

    Drones could soon be flown by autonomous AI pilots if Lockheed Martin has any say.  The aerospace giant is partnering with ESPN's Drone Racing League to pit humans and AI against one another to see which can navigate a drone through a high-flying course the fastest.

    Drone 13

    Called the AlphaPilot Innovation Challenge, teams must craft AI system based around Nvidia's Jetson deep learning technology and fly the drone without any pre-programming or human intervention.  The first team that can outrun a human DRL pilot wins a $250,000 reward, while the grand prize winner can claim up to $1 million.  But the competition doesn't just promise a financial reward.  The winning AI system could spell the future of autonomous drone operations, according to Lockheed Martin.

    'Competitors will have an opportunity to define the future of autonomy and AI and help our world leverage these promising technologies to build a brighter future,' Keoki Jackson, Lockheed Martin's Chief Technology Officer, said in a statement.  This includes a range of 'complex challenges,' including fighting wildfires, saving lives during natural disasters and 'exploring deep space,' Jackson explained.

    Members of the public are encouraged to participate in the challenge, which will start accepting entries in November.  Teams will then compete in the DRL's 2019 racing season.  AI-powered drones will have to navigate complex courses in the League's AI Robot Racing circuit alongside human-piloted drones.   The ultimate goal is to develop systems that put AI pilots on par with humans.

    '[The AIRR circuit] will challenge teams of the most talented AI engineers and researchers from around the world to design an AI framework that’s capable of racing a drone — without any pre-programming or human intervention.  By having AI and humans compete on the same track and comparing their times, we’ll also be able to measure the gap in performance between man and machine, and see how quickly it closes,' DRL CEO Nicholas Horbaczewski told VentureBeat.

    Lockheed Martin is now encouraging undergraduate and graduate students, as well as drone enthusiasts and coders to participate in the challenge.  The competition has raised concerns from some who are wary that the technology could be used to further Lockheed Martin's pursuits in militarizing drones.  It's already interested in developing pilotless aircraft for military purposes.

    However, Horbaczewski said the tech being developed doesn't have any ties to the military.  He added that it will take a while before the AI-piloted drone technology is truly up to par with humans.

    'DRL's pilots could easily defeat any autonomous racing drone today...But the goal of AIRR is to close that gap.  In 2019, my money is on the human pilot.  But by 2020?  It's anyone's race,' Horbaczewski told the Verge.

    Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk