AI racing drone posts faster times than human world champions
An AI-powered racing drone flew a title course faster than three former human world champions, according to Live Science. The drone, called MonoRace, uses just one camera and a tiny computer on board. It was built by a team at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.
An AI-powered drone has flown a championship race course faster than some of the world's best human drone pilots, according to Live Science, which reported on a study published October 14 in the journal Science Robotics.
The system, called MonoRace, won the 2025 Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League drone competition, beating every rival autonomous team and posting faster times than three former human world-champion pilots, Live Science reported. It was built by researchers at Delft University of Technology's Micro Air Vehicles Lab in the Netherlands, Live Science reported.
MonoRace flew without GPS, outside motion-capture systems or a preloaded map of the course, Live Science reported. It relies on a single forward-facing camera, a motion sensor and a tiny onboard computer, Live Science reported. A neural network spots the racing gates, estimates the drone's position and sends commands to its four propellers 500 times per second, Live Science reported.
On the Abu Dhabi course, the drone completed two laps around 11 gates in 16.56 seconds, reaching a top speed of about 63 miles per hour, Live Science reported. The drone weighs 966 grams, or about 2.13 pounds, Live Science reported.
The researchers trained the system in simulation using reinforcement learning, a method in which an AI repeats a task millions of times and learns from success and failure, Live Science reported. "It actually learns to fly from scratch," said study co-author Guido de Croon, a professor at Delft, according to Live Science.
De Croon said MonoRace could become a training tool for human pilots, "a bit like powerful chess programs have also inspired humans playing the game," Live Science reported. Live Science reported that the work shows how a robot can sense, decide and act at high speed with limited computing power.
What we know: Live Science reports that the MonoRace drone beat human champions' times using one camera and a small onboard chip.
What we don't: Only Live Science has reported this so far; NewsHabit hasn't seen independent confirmation.
Where outlets agree This is one outlet's report: Live Science is the only outlet NewsHabit has counted for this story so far.
Where they differ Live Science reports the researchers' account of the drone's performance, and no named party has publicly disputed it so far.