An artificial intelligence system now enables robotic helicopters to teach themselves to fly difficult stunts by watching other helicopters perform the same manoeuvres.
The stunts are “by far the most difficult aerobatic manoeuvres flown by any computer controlled helicopter,” said Andrew Ng, the Stanford professor directing the research.
Stanford’s artificial intelligence system learned how to fly by “watching” the four-foot-long helicopters flown by expert radio control pilot Garett Oku.
For five minutes, the chopper, on its own, ran through a dizzying series of stunts beyond the capabilities of a full-scale piloted helicopter and other autonomous remote control helicopters.
The artificial-intelligence helicopter can perform a smorgasbord of difficult manoeuvres: travelling flips, rolls, loops with pirouettes, stall-turns with pirouettes, a knife-edge, an Immelmann, a slapper, an inverted tail slide and a hurricane, described as a “fast backward funnel.”
