AI autopilot developed for low-altitude flights in urban areas

Engineers from Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, USA) managed to implement a pilot project of artificial intelligence for flight control at low altitudes. The tasks of the system include safe piloting in order to prevent traffic jams and collisions between small aircraft, including in urban areas.


Around the world, many vehicle manufacturers are moving towards alternative low altitude vehicles. The future of small aviation - numerous drones, air taxis, cargo and medical helicopters require the creation of a system for regulating urban flights. The only limit to the development of the industry was the lack of a sufficient number of trained pilots. The use of automated control systems of conventional airliners for solving this problem is not suitable. All of them are designed to operate at high altitudes and comply with instrument flight rules (IFR).


The new development uses digital all-round cameras and radars, which allows you to identify other aircraft in much the same way as a regular pilot. The system is capable of recognizing speech, processing and understanding messages from pilots on the air, and responding to requests from air traffic controllers and other pilots.

Autopilot AI was developed using a huge amount of data collected from two airports in Pennsylvania at once. To train the synthetic mind, video materials from the surveillance cameras of the liners, weather information and radio broadcasts were used.

Jay Patrykar, PhD at the Institute of Robotics and project leader, said the new autopilot is able to plan its next steps based on the data it receives. That is, the system will be able to independently make decisions and change the trajectory of the aircraft without human intervention. At the same time, the strategic thinking of AI is fully correlated in accordance with the current situation in space and with information from the radio.


At the time of the announcement, the artificial intelligence autopilot has successfully passed tests on flight simulators. The next step will be AI testing on small aircraft.

The seriousness of the development is evidenced by the fact that the project is supported by the US Army Research Bureau and the Artificial Intelligence Integration Center of the Future Command. It is quite possible that the practical application of the system will initially be implemented in the military sector, and after running it will receive civilian use.