DRL IS CLOSING THE GAP
BETWEEN HUMAN
PERFORMANCE AND AI.

DRL is known as the sport of the future, and we are always looking for ways to remain futuristic. And AI is the future of technology. We believe that in 5 years or less human vs. AI drone racing can become not just credible, but competitive.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ROBOTIC RACING
(AIRR) CIRCUIT.

The Artificial Intelligence Robotic Racing (AIRR) Circuit is a racing series, where DRL is enabling teams of technologists, engineers and drone enthusiasts to develop artificial intelligence to race high-speed drones through unique tracks without any human intervention.

TECHNOLOGY

FIRST AUTONOMOUS RACING DRONE

The DRL RacerAI is the first autonomous drone designed to defeat a human in a physical sport. At 7 lbs, top speed of 70 miles per hour, and over 20 pounds of thrust, this drone is designed to support and accelerate AI racing performance.

RADICAL DRONE DESIGN

Shaped as forward-facing arrow, the DRL RacerAI has a radical drone configuration to provide its computer vision with a non-obstructive frontal view during racing. It’s equipped with a powerful AI-at-the-edge compute platform, the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier, and is connected to four onboard stereoscopic cameras -- enabling the AI to detect and identify objects with twice the field of view as human pilots.

TEAMS

ALPHAPILOT INNOVATION CHALLENGE

Lockheed Martin launched the AlphaPilot, an open innovation challenge to develop artificial intelligence for high-speed racing drones. During a robust submission process, 424 developer team applicants, representing 2300 innovators from over 80 countries applied. From there, Lockheed Martin and DRL created a series of programming tests to narrow the field down to just 9 teams.

And for the last few months, these teams have been developing AI to deploy on the drones in AIRR.

MEET THE TEAMS
EQUAL PLAYING FIELD

DRL created the tools these AlphaPilot teams need to push the boundaries of AI: A custom autonomous drone, a baseline software developer kit tied to the RacerAI’s operating system, and a modified version of our existing DRL SIM to give the teams a canvas to deploy, test and refine code without banging up critical, first-of-its-kind drone equipment.
WHAT’S AT STAKE

The AlphaPilot team with the fastest AI code will take home a $1 million prize from Lockheed Martin, and a chance to go head-to-head with a human pilot to earn an additional $250,000.

HUMAN VS. AI

Highlights from the 2019 AIRR Season

AIRR RACE #1
ADDITION FINANCIAL ARENA
ORLANDO, FLORIDA
OCTOBER 8TH

RESULTS
3 Teams completed 1 Gate
1 Team completed 2 Gates


WINNER
TEAM USRG @ KAIST

AIRR RACE #2
WALTER E. WASHINGTON CONVENTION CENTER
WASHINGTON, DC.
NOVEMBER 2ND

RESULTS
MAVLAB completed the course in :35s
4 Teams completed 2 Gates
2 Teams completed 1 Gate

WINNER
TEAM MAVLAB

AIRR RACE #3
THE BALTIMORE CONVENTION CENTER
BALTIMORE, MD
NOVEMBER 15TH

RESULTS
MAVLAB completed the course in :12s
4 Teams completed 2 Gates
8 Teams completed 1 Gate

WINNER
TEAM MAVLAB

AUSTIN AIRR RACE #4
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATEMAN
AUSTIN, TX
DECEMBER 6TH

WINNER
MAVLAB is crowned the 2019 AIRR Champions, finishing the course in :11s and winning the grand prize of $1 Million Dollars from Lockheed Martin.

HUMAN BEATS MACHINE, FOR NOW.
DRL Pilot Gab707 went head-to-head against AIRR Winners, MAVLAB. Gab707 guided his drone through the course in :06s. It took MavLAB :11s--proving AI drone racing is not just credible, but competitive.

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Drone Racing League

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