Speaker 1: Drone racing is a thrilling competition that pits talented pilots
Speaker 1: against each other in a contest of skill and daring,
Speaker 1: and now robots are getting in on the action. I'm
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland and this is text Up Daily. NASA's Jet
Speaker 1: Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California has lots of stuff going on.
Speaker 1: Among the many projects that the numerous actual real life
Speaker 1: rockets scientists have initiated is one that teaches an artificial
Speaker 1: intelligence how to pilot a small drone through a complex
Speaker 1: obstacle race course, which frankly sounds like the coolest job ever.
Speaker 1: The research team working on the project received funding from
Speaker 1: Google and took two years to create the software that
Speaker 1: could learn a course and send the appropriate commands to
Speaker 1: a drone to make its way through without crashing or
Speaker 1: missing a turn. The team built three drones called Batman, Nightwing,
Speaker 1: and Joker. The drones have a top speed of eighty
Speaker 1: miles per hour or a d kilometers per hour if
Speaker 1: they have enough space to get up to top speed
Speaker 1: within the confines of the race course, that top speed
Speaker 1: is closer to forty miles per hour or sixty four
Speaker 1: kilometers per hour. As a test of their work, the
Speaker 1: research team invited a professional drone racing pilot, and yes,
Speaker 1: in case you weren't aware, that's a thing that really exists.
Speaker 1: This pilot was Ken Lu, a k A Flying Bear
Speaker 1: on the drone racing circuit, who averaged a blistering pace
Speaker 1: of eleven point one seconds per lap on the course.
Speaker 1: The AI piloted drone was just a touch slower, with
Speaker 1: an average time of thirteen point nine seconds. So for now,
Speaker 1: a top performing human can still outpace an AI piloted drone,
Speaker 1: But Lou himself was impressed by the performance. Lu said
Speaker 1: to reporters that quote one of my faults as a
Speaker 1: pilot is I get tired easily. When I it mentally fatigued,
Speaker 1: I start to get lost, even if I've flown the
Speaker 1: course ten times end quote. That's an advantage AI has
Speaker 1: over humans. It doesn't get sleepy or distracted. It can
Speaker 1: continue to operate as long as it has the computational
Speaker 1: power necessary to execute commands. The AI s path was
Speaker 1: also more consistent than LOSE technique for navigating the course.
Speaker 1: While LOSE drone might vary in its flight path with
Speaker 1: each lap, the AI piloted drone continued to follow the
Speaker 1: same line time after time. The technology has the potential
Speaker 1: to benefit multiple industries. Space exploration is definitely high on
Speaker 1: that list. The vast distances involved in space exploration make
Speaker 1: it impossible to rely upon a human operator controlling a
Speaker 1: remote vehicle. There's too much delay between when a person
Speaker 1: would send a command and when that command would reach
Speaker 1: the robot. When the Curiosity rover made a soft landing
Speaker 1: on Mars, it did so autonomously because there was a
Speaker 1: communication delay of several minutes due to the distance between
Speaker 1: Earth and Mars. The rover was actually on Mars for
Speaker 1: about ten minutes before scientists on Earth could confirm touchdown.
Speaker 1: Autonomous systems are critical for situations in which a vehicle
Speaker 1: must navigate far from human control back here on Earth.
Speaker 1: A versatile navigation and mapping system could help a drone
Speaker 1: become part of an automated operations and everything from search
Speaker 1: and rescue missions to something as simple as checking on
Speaker 1: inventory inside a massive warehouse. There are numerous potential benefits
Speaker 1: to AI controlled drones. As for drone racing, that's a
Speaker 1: sport that's literally taking off. Numerous hobby organizations host drone
Speaker 1: racing competitions, and some pilots compete to set the best
Speaker 1: course time, navigating through specific obstacles and flying drones through
Speaker 1: gateways or around pylons and others. Multiple pilots might compete simultaneously,
Speaker 1: racing against each other to get to the finish line first.
Speaker 1: Pilots might even don a head mounted display to view
Speaker 1: a live video feed footage from a camera on the
Speaker 1: drone to fly the course from a first person first effective.
Speaker 1: The big name in drone racing is d r one Racing,
Speaker 1: but there are many others. Perhaps in the future will
Speaker 1: see some artificially intelligent competitors enter the field. It's not
Speaker 1: difficult to imagine a scenario in which machines are able
Speaker 1: to outperform even the best human pilots. In some ways,
Speaker 1: that's a sad realization, but we should also remember that
Speaker 1: humans were the ones able to create the machines in
Speaker 1: the first place, and that they have the potential to
Speaker 1: do some phenomenal things beyond going really fast through an
Speaker 1: obstacle course. That's all for today. To learn more about drones,
Speaker 1: artificial intelligence, and NASA, subscribe to the Tech Stuff podcast.
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Speaker 1: tech and in much greater detail. New episodes published on
Speaker 1: Wednesdays and Fridays. I'll see you again soon.