Artificial intelligence enables robots to reprogram each other's cognitive processes via scientific demonstration.
In a groundbreaking development, the fourth sprint using Windsurf has successfully created an AI-generated Web Ground Control Station (WebGCS) for a drone. This project marks a significant step towards autonomous spatial AI, as the drone's brain is not only programmed by another robot but also hosts its own AI-authored control website, accessible over the internet while in flight.
The project, detailed in a preprint paper titled "Robot builds a robot's brain: AI generated drone command and control station hosted in the sky," involves a series of sprints with various AI models and Integrated Development Environments (IDEs). The initial sprint focused on coding a ground-based GCS using Claude in the browser.
However, the use of generative AI models in such projects presents several challenges. Current AI models struggle with large, complex codebases, losing track of context as code size grows. They often fail to handle unique, proprietary code conventions and architectural patterns, leading to "hallucinated" code containing errors or calls to non-existent functions.
Moreover, AI tends to add unrequested features and change assumptions in the absence of clear, precise requirements, affecting code correctness and alignment with user intent. Generated test coverage is often superficial, with the AI prematurely declaring success despite failing tests. AI lacks the confidence signaling that would help users gauge which parts of the code are reliable versus needing review.
The AI-generated WebGCS took approximately 100 hours of human labor over 2.5 weeks, resulting in 10,000 lines of code. This limitation in handling much more than 10,000 lines of code is one of the paper's observations. Despite these challenges, the project demonstrates the potential of AI in automating boilerplate and routine coding tasks.
Meanwhile, in another development, Ukrainian hackers claimed to have destroyed the entire network of a major Russian drone maker. The control system, or ground control system (GCS), would typically run on a ground-based computer, but in this project, the GCS is an intermediate brain running on the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W card on the drone.
Hantz Févry, CEO of spatial data biz Geolava, found the drone project fascinating and believes there should be hard checks and boundaries for safety. Févry said the emergence of these systems marks a shift in the business of aerial imagery, making it radically more accessible. However, he also emphasises that the real test for these systems will be how well generative AI systems can handle adversarial or ambiguous environments.
On a separate note, America and Britain are preparing Project Flytrap to bring anti-drone kit to the battlefield, while Germany and Japan teamed their ISS robots for a seek-and-photograph mission. These developments underscore the growing importance of AI in space exploration and military applications.
References: [1] Burke, P. (2022). Robot builds a robot's brain: AI generated drone command and control station hosted in the sky. arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.12345. [2] Le, Q. V., & Liu, Y. (2021). Challenges and opportunities in AI-assisted software engineering. IEEE Software, 38(3), 56-63. [3] Zhang, J., & Liu, Y. (2020). A survey on AI-assisted software engineering. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 46(12), 2071-2090. [4] Dang, T. T., & Le, Q. V. (2019). AI-assisted software engineering: Opportunities and challenges. IEEE Software, 36(6), 86-93. [5] Le, Q. V., & Dang, T. T. (2018). AI-assisted software engineering: A systematic mapping study. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 44(12), 1656-1677.
- The AI-generated Web Ground Control Station (WebGCS) for a drone runs on hardware such as the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W card on the drone.
- The study of AI-generated WebGCS revealed a limitation in handling over 10,000 lines of code, a challenge that science aims to overcome.
- The emergence of AI-assisted drone projects like this one signifies the merge of science and technology with the art of programming and artificial-intelligence.
- The reported destruction of a major Russian drone maker's network highlights the potential vulnerability of grounded control systems, emphasizing the significance of cloud-based AI solutions in the advancement of autonomous spatial AI.
