Self-Learning Helicopter

A new age of AI technology has gone to new extents. The technology, located in a remote control helicopter, allows the copter to "learn" new tricks by just watching other helicopters. "The result is an autonomous helicopter than can perform a complete airshow of complex tricks on its own, its inventors say*." The copter can do all sorts of tricks, such as flips, loops, and rolls.

The stunts are "by far the most difficult aerobatic maneuvers flown by any computer-controlled helicopter," said Andrew Ng, a Stanford University professor directing the research of graduate students Pieter Abbeel, Adam Coates, Timothy Hunter and Morgan Quigley*.

"I think the range of maneuvers they can do is by far the largest" in the autonomous helicopter field, said Eric Feron, a Georgia Tech aeronautics and astronautics professor who worked on autonomous helicopters while at MIT. "But what's more impressive is the technology that underlies this work. In a way, the machine teaches itself how to do this by watching an expert pilot fly. This is amazing."*

* Articles taken directly from Yahoo. Blog title links to original article.