When AI Outflies Humans: Fly4Future Triumphs in Autonomous Drone League

Artificial intelligence has outperformed human pilots — and a Czech team was right there when it happened. In the grand finale of the “Champions League” of autonomous drones held in Abu Dhabi, the team from Fly4Future and the Multi-Robot Systems group (MRS) from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at CTU in Prague once again made it among the global elite, securing a share of the prize pool totaling CZK 25 million.

The Fly4Future company and MRS achieved an extraordinary result at the prestigious Autonomous Racing League (A2RL), which took place on April 11–12, 2025. Out of 210 teams from across the globe, the Czech team advanced through the qualification rounds and made it to the top four in all four disciplines, ultimately earning a bronze medal in the drag race, a category focused on reaching maximum autonomous flight speed.

In this intense competition, drones reached speeds of up to 150 km/h and had to autonomously maneuver through tight tracks with up to 7G overload — all without human intervention, relying solely on onboard AI and machine learning.

In both the quarterfinals and semifinals, the MRS team significantly increased their speed compared to earlier rounds, consistently completing the course in just 40 seconds. In the final round, they attempted to reach the top of the leaderboard with a much faster and more aggressive flight trajectory. However, this ambitious strategy proved too demanding for the Czech flying robots, and they narrowly missed out on a medal placement in the final run.

The gold medal went to TU Delft, silver to TII, and bronze to KAIST. The winners split a total prize of $1 million, while the Czech team took home over $60,000 for their placements across the individual disciplines.

In a competition featuring robotic teams and human pilots, artificial intelligence emerged as the winner — an outcome no one expected and one that highlights the incredible level of the event in Abu Dhabi.

This top-level experience, which fused AI and robotics research with extreme sport, will help the Prague-based researchers further improve their agile flight systems. The autonomous multi-robot systems they are developing are already being applied in critical infrastructure inspections, industrial use, and search and rescue operations — fields where traditional systems often fail.

The ongoing research by Fly4Future and the MRS group at CTU is now focusing on increasing drone speed and reliability, especially in swarm flight, along with enhancing autonomous long-distance navigation and the miniaturization of sensors. These goals are key for deploying drones in rescue missions, large-scale inspections, and other scenarios where conventional solutions are not sufficient.

Fly4Future is building on their newly developed RoboFly robotic system, a small flying robot equipped with cameras and reliable GPS-free communication.

After returning from the UAE, Fly4Future and the MRS team began testing this new technology at the CTU FEL training center in Temešvár. Through real-world demonstrations involving more than 30 drones, they are showcasing cooperative drone behavior, including systems capable of operating without GPS, thanks to a combination of camera-based localization and wireless distance measurement. These demonstrations aim to validate not only the technological maturity of the team’s research but also its readiness for real-world applications.

Related news: Fly4Future and MRS qualified for the Autonomous Racing League
Related links: The Czech team from FEL CTU in the finals of the “Champions League” of autonomous drones in Abu Dhabi broke into the absolute world top