Researchers use VR to train AI drones, cutting autonomous vehicle crashes

MIT researchers have developed a technique to train fast-moving autonomous AI drones using VR-enhanced environments, reducing crashes and thereby the need for repairs or replacements. Known as “Flight Goggles,” the system will be detailed at this week’s IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Brisbane, Australia.

Flight Goggles enables autonomous vehicles to see and learn from virtual environments while they’re actually moving in physically empty spaces. The system tracks a drone’s motion, renders 90-frame-per-second photorealistic imagery of its current virtual location, and quickly transmits the images to the drone’s image processor. Researcher Sertac Karaman told MIT News (via Road to VR) that “[t]he drone will be flying in an empty room, but will be ‘hallucinating’ a completely different environment, and will learn in that environment.”