Stanford's "Autonomous" Helicopters Learn

An anonymous reader writes "Stanford computer scientists have developed an artificial intelligence system that enables robotic helicopters to teach themselves to fly difficult stunts by 'watching' other helicopters perform the same maneuvers. The result is an autonomous helicopter that can perform a complete airshow of complex tricks on its own. The stunts are 'by far the most difficult aerobatic maneuvers flown by any computer controlled helicopter,' said Andrew Ng, the professor directing the research of graduate students Pieter Abbeel, Adam Coates, Timothy Hunter and Morgan Quigley. The dazzling airshow is an important demonstration of 'apprenticeship learning,' in which robots learn by observing an expert, rather than by having software engineers peck away at their keyboards in an attempt to write instructions from scratch.'" The title of the linked article uses the term "autonomous," but that's somewhat misleading. The copters can't fly on their own, but rather can duplicate complex maneuvers learned from a human pilot.

Comments

Autonomous

[Anonymous Coward]

They still are autonomous. Would you call people non-autonomous because they learn from other people?

Re:UCAR

[lordofwhee]

There's a HUGE difference between a robot that can manage to land on a fixed point on an object, and a robot that can actually LEARN how to land on that object. Remember, these robots know nothing. Not how to fly, not how to land, nothing, except how to learn.

Not Autonomous? FTNWYWCBED*

[Somegeek]

From the 2nd paragraph of the article:

"The result is an autonomous helicopter than can perform a complete airshow of complex tricks on its own."

From kdawson's summary:

"The title of the linked article uses the term "autonomous," but that's somewhat misleading. The copters can't fly on their own, but rather can duplicate complex maneuvers learned from a human pilot."

How in any way do you come to that conclusion based upon the data in the story?

They CAN and DO fly by themselves. Out of the lab. In varying weather conditions. Constantly making adjustments for wind gusts, etc., none of which is being controlled by a human.

And then the wisecrack about their AI? It uses an algorithm to study commands sent to another helicopter, studies the results, figures out what the goal of the commands was, and is able to implement those goals, on its own, more accurately than the original human pilot. That's not a strong AI?

Can we please get some editors that understand what they are reading?

*From The Not What You Would Call Brilliant Editing Department