Spectacular Accidents in Drone Race in California

A drone sprays water during an operation to reduce air pollution near the Giant Swing and Wat Suthat in Bangkok, Thailand in January 2019. Reuters
A drone sprays water during an operation to reduce air pollution near the Giant Swing and Wat Suthat in Bangkok, Thailand in January 2019. Reuters
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Spectacular Accidents in Drone Race in California

A drone sprays water during an operation to reduce air pollution near the Giant Swing and Wat Suthat in Bangkok, Thailand in January 2019. Reuters
A drone sprays water during an operation to reduce air pollution near the Giant Swing and Wat Suthat in Bangkok, Thailand in January 2019. Reuters

A recent drone race at University Central Florida (UCF) made one thing clear: the robot revolution remains a ways off. A parade of autonomous drones took turns tumbling awkwardly through the air, veering sharply toward walls and crashing, sometimes in spectacular fashion, at Addition Arena during the first-ever race of the machines.

Nine vehicles were given three chances to navigate a track made up of four square-shaped checkpoints essentially set in a straight line during the Drone Racing League's season-opening event. Of the 27 runs, only two resulted in the drone making it through the first checkpoint.

During a panel discussion on the drones programmed with artificial intelligence, Sertac Karaman, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, said: "If you're not seeing any failures, you are not pushing the technology enough."

The race marked the launch of the first division of the league to feature vehicles not piloted by humans by remote control. Instead, the teams had to train the vehicles to spot, identify and then figure out a way to evade obstacles in their paths, while staying on track toward the goal. The result was a series of heats that featured drones checking out their environment and spotting obstacles before ultimately deciding to either turn around, jolt sky high or shoot toward the floor as a crowd of about 500 cheered them on.

The new circuit will reward the winning team with $1 million at the end of a four-race circuit, which will next visit Washington, DC, on November 2. Team USRG, based at the research-centric Kaist University in South Korea, won the UCF event.



IT Outage Hits German Airports, Bild Newspaper Reports

The German flag is seen outside Germany's Bundestag, the lower house of parliament. in Berlin, Germany, March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke
The German flag is seen outside Germany's Bundestag, the lower house of parliament. in Berlin, Germany, March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke
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IT Outage Hits German Airports, Bild Newspaper Reports

The German flag is seen outside Germany's Bundestag, the lower house of parliament. in Berlin, Germany, March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke
The German flag is seen outside Germany's Bundestag, the lower house of parliament. in Berlin, Germany, March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

Airports across Germany have been hit by a IT outage affecting federal police systems used to check incoming passengers, Bild newspaper reported on Friday, citing the police, Reuters reported.

"Our colleagues have to do a lot of things manually that the system used to do. We're still managing to get it done at the moment," said a police spokesperson responsible for Frankfurt airport, Germany's busiest.

Federal police were not immediately available for comment.