Russian Engineers Develop Software for Autonomous Drone Control
A student team from Southern Federal University has created AI-powered software for drone autonomy—a project that just won Russia’s national Aerobot competition.
A team of students from Southern Federal University has taken first place in the All-Russian Aerobot competition, a national contest for developing software and hardware solutions for the autonomous control of multirotor drones.
The competition was divided into two stages: a virtual simulation round and a live field test. In the real-world phase, participants’ drones were tasked with locating objects, following routes, and completing speed trials on complex tracks. Sixteen teams of young engineers from cities including Saint Petersburg, Kazan, Cheboksary, Nalchik, Mariupol, Stavropol, Rostov-on-Don, and Taganrog took part.
Aerobot remains the only platform in Russia where unmanned aerial vehicles compete entirely autonomously—without any operator control. According to Yuri Bykov, head of the project group at the Advanced Research Foundation’s Testing and Implementation Center, the future of drone technology lies in intelligent robotic systems capable of independently assessing their surroundings and making decisions on the fly.
