MAVLAB WINS BIG AT ABU DHABI AUTONOMOUS DRONE CHAMPIONSHIP, BEATS HUMAN PILOT

KUALA LUMPUR, April 17 (Bernama) -- Team MavLab from TU Delft emerged as the standout winner of the inaugural A2RL x DCL Autonomous Drone Championship, held at ADNEC Marina Hall in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The team claimed victory in three major categories, namely the AI Grand Challenge, setting a record by completing two laps of the 170-metre course in just 17 seconds; the Autonomous Drag Race (the world’s first AI-only drag race); and the highly anticipated AI vs Human Showdown, where their autonomous drone outperformed a top human pilot in a historic head-to-head duel.

Meanwhile, Technology Innovation Institute (TII) Racing also made its mark by winning the Multi-Autonomous Drone Race, which tested the artificial intelligence (AI)'s ability to coordinate and avoid collisions under high-speed conditions.

The event, hosted by the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL) in collaboration with the Drone Champions League (DCL), brought together 14 international teams—including countries such as the UAE, Netherlands, South Korea, Austria, and the United States.

These teams, consisting of university labs, research institutes, and startups, advanced through intense qualifiers to compete in a multi-format championship designed to push the limits of AI-powered flight, according to a statement.

Each team flew a standardised drone equipped with NVIDIA’s Jetson Orin NX computing module, a forward-facing camera, and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) for onboard perception and control.

Relying entirely on real-time AI processing with no human control, the drones raced through a complex environment at speeds exceeding 150 kilometres per hour (km/h). The track challenged even the best systems with its sparse visuals, irregular lighting, and wide gate spacing—marking a new benchmark for perception-based autonomous racing.

The event also featured a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programme run in partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), which trained over 100 Emirati students in drone operation. Impressively, over 60 per cent achieved the Trusted Operator Program certification, with 24 achieving perfect scores.

Looking ahead, the spotlight now turns to the next season of A2RL, with autonomous car racing set to return to Yas Marina Circuit in the fourth quarter of this year.

-- BERNAMA