{"623426":{"#nid":"623426","#data":{"type":"news","title":"With $1 Million on the Line Team Icarus to Compete in Finals of Drone Racing Competition","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAccording to Greek mythology, Icarus\u0026rsquo; demise came from flying too close to the sun. While \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/gticarus.com\/\u0022\u003ETeam Icarus,\u003C\/a\u003E Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s elite drone racing team, won\u0026rsquo;t be flying near the sun they do hope to fly quickly and efficiently using only artificial intelligence.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe team is one of nine finalists that will be competing in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.lockheedmartin.com\/en-us\/news\/events\/ai-innovation-challenge.html\u0022\u003EAlphaPilot \u0026ndash; Lockheed Martin AI Drone Racing Innovation Challenge\u003C\/a\u003E this fall. The winner will take home a $1 million prize.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETo reach the finals, the team \u0026ndash; comprised of ten Georgia Tech students ranging from undergraduate to Ph.D. students \u0026ndash; competed in a series of qualifying rounds. Each round tested a different component of the drone including drone control, vision, and a team game plan. Icarus successfully completed each round knocking out over 415 teams from 81 countries.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe finals will bring together all of those components to see which drone can complete the course as quickly as possible. The team is excited to debut an algorithm that was developed by a team member called the model predictive path integral (MPPI). The algorithm combines the control and planning aspects together \u0026ndash; something the team hopes will give them an edge over the competition.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;I think the model makes us pretty unique amongst the nine teams. I\u0026rsquo;m excited to show off the power of this algorithm and to see it perform in competition. If it fails it will be a great learning opportunity for our lab, so it\u0026rsquo;s a win-win,\u0026rdquo; said \u003Cstrong\u003EManan Gandhi\u003C\/strong\u003E, a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ae.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EDaniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E and team captain.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGrady Williams\u003C\/strong\u003E, \u003Cstrong\u003EBrian Goldfain\u003C\/strong\u003E and \u003Cstrong\u003EPaul Drews\u003C\/strong\u003E have been the key enablers for the development of the technology that the team is\u0026nbsp;using in the Alpha Pilot Challenge.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWhile drone racing has become an immensely popular sport, including \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.espn.com\/video\/clip\/_\/id\/19672700\u0022\u003Eairtime on ESPN\u003C\/a\u003E, Gandhi says it\u0026rsquo;s the other real-world applications of drones that excite the team and motivate them to create the best one possible. The underlying technology created in this competition could be used to improve drones used in scenarios like disaster relief, where time is of the essence and there is not a lot of sensory data to go off of.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWhen asked about the million-dollar prize, Gandhi says they try not to think about it too much.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;If we win, we want the money to go back to the team so that they won\u0026rsquo;t have to worry about funding for the next few years. Graduate school is stressful and difficult, and this prize money would help secure their futures while they pursue their research,\u0026rdquo; said Gandhi.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBeginning in September, the finals consist of four races, with all nine teams competing in the first three. The top three teams will compete in the grand finale in November.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETeam Icarus is advised by \u003Cstrong\u003EEvangelos Theodorou\u003C\/strong\u003E, an associate professor in the School of Aerospace Engineering and affiliated faculty member of the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/ml.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EMachine Learning Center at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EExplore an interactive data visualization of all nine finalists \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/public.tableau.com\/views\/DroneCompetition\/Dashboard1?:embed=y\u0026amp;:display_count=yes\u0026amp;publish=yes\u0026amp;:origin=viz_share_link:showVizHome=no\u0022\u003Ehere.\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech\u0027s drone competition team, Team Icarus, will compete in the finals of the AlphaPilot Challenge this fall in the hopes of winning $1 million."}],"uid":"34773","created_gmt":"2019-07-16 15:35:09","changed_gmt":"2019-07-18 19:47:01","author":"ablinder6","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2019-07-16T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2019-07-16T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"623424":{"id":"623424","type":"image","title":"Back row: Camilo, Jason, Akash, Bogdan, Manan Computer screens: Evangelos, Nathan Front row: Sam, Alex, Keuntaek make up Team Icarus.","body":null,"created":"1563290690","gmt_created":"2019-07-16 15:24:50","changed":"1563290690","gmt_changed":"2019-07-16 15:24:50","alt":"Team Icarus","file":{"fid":"237423","name":"img_20190603_172921.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/img_20190603_172921.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/img_20190603_172921.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":153784,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/img_20190603_172921.jpg?itok=tElDIuh0"}},"623428":{"id":"623428","type":"image","title":"The nine Alpha Pilot Challenge finalists come from around the world. Explore our interactive data visualization of all nine teams. ","body":null,"created":"1563291480","gmt_created":"2019-07-16 15:38:00","changed":"1563291498","gmt_changed":"2019-07-16 15:38:18","alt":"","file":{"fid":"237424","name":"Screen Shot 2019-07-16 at 11.35.52 AM.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Screen%20Shot%202019-07-16%20at%2011.35.52%20AM.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Screen%20Shot%202019-07-16%20at%2011.35.52%20AM.png","mime":"image\/png","size":334278,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Screen%20Shot%202019-07-16%20at%2011.35.52%20AM.png?itok=IRI4Mfry"}}},"media_ids":["623424","623428"],"groups":[{"id":"576481","name":"ML@GT"},{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"},{"id":"39521","name":"Robotics"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAllie McFadden\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ECommunications Officer\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003Eallie.mcfadden@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["allie.mcfadden@cc.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}