The Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL), an organization under the Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), in collaboration with the Drone Champions League (DCL), has successfully hosted the Middle East’s first ‘A2RL X DCL Autonomous Drone Championship 2025’.
Held at the ADNEC Marina Hall in Abu Dhabi, the event showcased groundbreaking achievements in autonomous flight and aerial robotics, culminating in the victory of the AI drone from the MavLab team at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands, beating out the world’s best human drone pilots in the ‘AI vs Human’ race. The one-on-one race featured some of the world’s best pilots, including finalists from the DCL Falcon Cup, and was the most complex race ever held.
After two days of high-level preliminary races, a total of 14 teams from 14 countries advanced to the finals, and the top four teams among them competed in the final races of various difficulty levels. The final teams consisted of various innovative entities from universities, research institutes, and startups from around the world, including Korea, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Netherlands, Austria, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Turkey, China, Spain, Canada, and the United States.
Each team raced using a standard drone equipped with NVIDIA’s Jetson Orin NX high-performance computing module, a forward-facing camera, and an inertial measurement unit (IMU). The drones navigated complex routes at speeds of over 150 kilometers per hour, using only real-time computation and AI-based decision-making, without any human intervention.
The course was designed to test the limits of perception-based autonomous flight, with wide gate spacing, irregular lighting, and minimal visual markers. In particular, the introduction of rolling shutter cameras increased the difficulty of the course, testing whether each team could perform quickly and reliably under demanding conditions. This was the first time that such a large-scale and difficult autonomous drone race had been held in an environment with extremely limited visual information, highlighting the technical challenge and future-oriented vision of the event.
Team KAIST, representing Korea in this competition, took third place in the AI Grand Challenge race. MavLab from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands achieved remarkable results by winning all three races: the AI Grand Challenge, AI vs. Human Race, and AI Drag Race. First, in the AI Grand Challenge, it won with the best record, completing two laps (total of 22 gates) of the 170m-long course in just 17 seconds.
In addition, in the AI vs. Human Challenge, the autonomous drone achieved a monumental victory, outpacing the world's best human pilots, demonstrating the advancement of autonomous flight technology. In addition, the world's first AI-only drag race was held, demonstrating excellent straight-line speed and acceleration control technology, once again taking first place. Meanwhile, TII Racing, a research institute in Abu Dhabi, won the AI multi-autonomous drone race. This competition was held in a format where multiple drones competed simultaneously to avoid collisions and collaborate during high-speed flight, and TII Racing, a research institute in Abu Dhabi, demonstrated excellent AI coordination capabilities and took first place.
“ATRC believes that innovation should not be just promises, but proven in the real world,” said Faisal Al Bannai, Adviser to the UAE President for Strategic Research and Advanced Technology Affairs, and Secretary-General of ATRC. “More than a race, A2RL is a global testbed for demonstrating high-performance autonomous technologies, demonstrating the UAE’s unwavering commitment to responsibly advancing AI, robotics and the next generation of mobility.”
“The future of flight is on the racetrack, not the lab,” said Stephane Timpano, CEO of ASPIRE, the organizer of the A2RL. “What we saw at this event is another step closer to scaling autonomous systems for real-world use.” Markus Stamfer, Executive Chairman of DCL, said: “This event put autonomous flight in a top-class racing environment and the AI was fully up to the challenge. This is a major leap forward for both the sport and the technology.”
“Winning the AI Grand Challenge and the AI vs. Human Race is a huge milestone for our team,” said Christophe De Wagter, team principal of MavLab, who won the triple crown. “It validates years of research and experimentation in the field of autonomous flight. We are thrilled to have seen that our algorithms can perform well in complex environments, and to have taken home the prize money as well.”
The 'A2RL X DCL Drone STEM Program', designed by ATRC in collaboration with UNICEF, has trained more than 100 Emirati students this year. More than 60% of the students who participated in the program have earned the prestigious 'Trusted Operator Program' qualification, 24 of whom have achieved a perfect score, proving that the program is developing cutting-edge aviation technologies.
Meanwhile, with the drone championship coming to a successful conclusion, the world's attention is also focused on Season 2 of the A2RL's autonomous car racing series, which will be held at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi in the fourth quarter of this year.
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