Fly4Future Shines in Global Drone Racing Arena
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.
Pushing the Limits at 150 km/h
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.
This result exceeded expectations. We’ve never focused on speed racing before, yet we matched the best in the world. Assoc. Prof. Martin Saska Fly4Future Co-founder & CTO
AI Outflies Humans & Real-World Applications
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.
It’s a fantastic and unexpected result, especially since we’ve never focused on time-based racing before. Still, we managed to compete with the absolute world elite, who specialize in this kind of contest. Assoc. Prof. Martin Saska Fly4Future Co-founder & CTO
