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NASA drone race....human vs AI

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The space agency took on pilot Ken Loo on a specially designed course using three purpose built drones




The team built three custom drones (dubbed Batman, Joker and Nightwing) and developed the complex algorithms the drones needed to fly at high speeds while avoiding obstacles.

These algorithms were integrated with Google's Tango technology, which JPL also worked on.


The drones were built to racing specifications and could easily go as fast as 80 mph (129 kph) in a straight line.

But on the obstacle course set up in a JPL warehouse, they could only fly at 30 or 40 mph (48 to 64 kph) before they needed to apply the brakes.

Compared to Loo, the drones flew more cautiously but consistently.

NASA says their algorithms are still a work in progress.

For example, the drones sometimes moved so fast that motion blur caused them to lose track of their surroundings.

Loo attained higher speeds and was able to perform impressive aerial corkscrews.




But he was limited by exhaustion, something the A.I.-piloted drones didn't have to deal with.

'This is definitely the densest track I've ever flown,' Loo said.

'One of my faults as a pilot is I get tired easily. When I get mentally fatigued, I start to get lost, even if I've flown the course 10 times.'

While the A.I. and human pilot started out with similar lap times, after dozens of laps, Loo learned the course and became more creative and nimble.

For the official laps, Loo averaged 11.1 seconds, compared to the autonomous drones, which averaged 13.9 seconds.





https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/drone-race-human-versus-artificial-intelligence
 
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