I had wondered about the amazing airshows buzzing overhead during the ultimate Frisbee games at Stanford. I just learned today that they are part of an AI research project, and the helicopters are flying without any humans in the loop.
Other than takeoff and landing, the entire acrobatic flight is controlled by computer. And the aerobatics are more diverse and complex than any other autonomous aircraft, on par with what a human expert could do. (Stanford site with cool videos)
The robot learns a dynamic model for flight by watching others. It observes the trajectories of several sub-optimal human attempts, and compiles a generalization of the trick maneuvers.
This approach could be used for a wide variety of robots. Made me wish I was back in school. Seeing them dance in the sky, I have just the robot to train next!
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