Agile Flight

Agile flight research focuses on enabling autonomous drones to perform rapid, complex maneuvers in challenging environments, primarily using vision-based control without relying on precise state estimation. Current research heavily utilizes reinforcement learning, often combined with imitation learning, to train neural network controllers that directly map visual input to control commands; popular architectures include transformers and actor-critic models. This work is significant for advancing autonomous navigation capabilities in robotics, with applications ranging from drone racing and search-and-rescue to aerial inspection and surveillance in complex, unstructured settings.