A drone designed and flown with AI

Core77.com recently featured a story on AU speaker, professional drone pilot, and AI enthusiast Eli D’Elia, who envisions a drone that’s “AI-grown and AI-flown” —that is, both designed and flown by computers. And he thinks it will appear in the not-too-distant future.

While autonomous drones may sound like something out of the next Star Wars installment, the idea is actually not that far-fetched. Several companies, including D’Elia’s Eagle Eye Metrics, are already dipping their toes into this pond. D’Elia has partnered with Autodesk to design the Hooligan 1000 racing drone, using the Autodesk Dreamcatcher generative design system to design the drone’s chassis. Once the design is finished, D’Elia will start working on the AI system that will steer the craft.

“Sometimes you hear people say that all this amazing stuff is going to happen ‘in the future,’ but you have to remember—that’s like 3 to 5 years from now,” he says. “Think about how far self-driving cars have come in 5 years. This stuff is coming and it’s coming fast.”

Read the full story, and check out D’Elia’s AU 2016 class to learn more: Racing-Drone Design Fundamentals with Fusion 360.