12 | New Scientist | 29 August 2020AN AI pilot has defeated a human
5-0 in virtual air-to-air combat
in the first contest of its kind.
The AlphaDogfight Trials,
staged by the US Defence
Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA), were streamed
online and proved so popular
that the final had to be transferred
to YouTube because of lack of
capacity on the original platform.While the US already operates
many uncrewed drones, these
are flown remotely by pilots,
whereas simulated F-16 fighter
aircraft in the AlphaDogfight
Trials were controlled by artificial
intelligence. In two previous
events, AIs competed against each
other. This time the organisers
decided the technology was
ready to take on a human.
Initially, eight teams from
industry and academia went
through three competition stages
to find a machine champion,
battling each other in various
forms. This was won by AI
specialists Heron Systems. Its AI
then took on a human F-16 pilot
known as Banger, who wasn’t
named for security reasons. The AI
beat Banger in all five encounters.
Every encounter started with
the aircraft in random positions
with neither having the advantage.
The combats involved almost
continuous turning, with both
pilots pushing their aircraft
to the limits to try to reach a
firing position. This generally
involved the aircraft chasing
each other in tight circles.The Heron AI was particularly
aggressive in its manoeuvring,
and, like the other AIs, showed
no hesitation in flying at very
low altitudes that human pilots
tend to avoid. The human vs AI
combats were notably shorter
than many of the AI vs AI battles.
The Heron AI was, like most
of the others, based on deep
reinforcement learning,
a technique in which algorithms
learn through many attempts at
a task. Unlike some others in the
competition, it wasn’t combined
with any pre-packaged responses,
and the AI learned everything
itself. Although some of the AIs
updated their decisions up to
50 times a second, the Heron AI
only updated 10 times a second
to make its movements smoother.
This smoothness was
particularly evident when Heron
took on Lockheed Martin in the AI
vs AI final. When the two aircraft
were flying straight towards each
other, the Heron AI could line up
better to score more hits,
destroying the other plane first.Not out of a job yet
The competition is part of DARPA’s
Air Combat Evolution project,
which envisages a future in which
a pilot could have autonomousdrones fly alongside them, or
AI might manoeuvre an aircraft
while the pilot selects targets.
This would require a lot
of confidence in the AI’s ability.
The competition is really to
help pilots gain respect for the
AIs, says Dan Javorsek, manager
of the DARPA programme.
“Fighter pilots have an almost
institutional requirement to
experience proof at the hands of
one of their own before adopting
a new tactic or technology.”
He says the plan is to load
algorithms into the flight control
system of an aircraft. The type
hasn’t yet been confirmed, but
F-16s retired from front-line
service have recently been
converted so that they can be
controlled remotely. The AI
software converts them into
autonomous dogfighters.
Dogfighting isn’t a big part
of modern air combat, says Justin
Bronk at defence think tank RUSI
in London. Bronk says exchanges
of fire are likely to start with
radar-guided missiles well
beyond visual range, with agile
heat-seeking missiles used at closer
range and guns as a last resort.
Bronk says that combat pilots
require many other skills, for
example, when they interceptan aircraft that isn’t responding
to air traffic control and may
be a threat. They need to be
able to determine from context
if it is a communications
malfunction or a hijack situation.
“For example, is a pilot slumped
over, or is there someone else
in the cockpit?” he says.
“The pilot needs understanding
of the broader political context,
whether the geopolitical
background is normal or there
is an elevated state of tension,”
says Bronk. “This is needed to
help classify what constitutes
hostile behaviour, and how
to respond appropriately.”
Deploying AI-controlled fighter
jets in action may be some way
off, because the US Air Force is
committed to maintaining human
control over lethal systems to
ensure responsibility and to
prevent “unwanted engagements”.
The next stage of the DARPA
programme will involve more
complex actions with multiple
aircraft on each side. This may give
AI, which can easily track many
objects simultaneously, even
more of an edge over humans. ❚“ The AI showed no
hesitation in flying at very
low altitudes that human
pilots tend to avoid”
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ESSome F-16 fighter aircraft
are being adapted so they
could be controlled remotelyMilitary technologyDavid HamblingAI outguns a human fighter pilot
Artificial intelligence defeats a human pilot in simulated air combat
Simulated fighter
aircraft dogfights were
streamed on YouTubeDARP
AT
V/YOUTUBE