flyby racing
Autonomous drones and race cars, built in Vienna
We are a student-led team from Vienna developing autonomous drones and race cars for international competition and applied robotics research.
Autonomous flight at 18 m/s
Our drone flies complex courses with an IMU and one rolling-shutter camera. Perception, control, and reinforcement learning run onboard. At 18 m/s, 100 milliseconds of delay means another 1.8 metres of travel. Motion blur and fast attitude changes leave little time to correct a poor line before the next gate. Each lap tells us where a new perception or control method holds up and where it fails.
Proven in international competition
flyby racing is a student team from Vienna with roots at robo4you and TU Wien. We work on machine learning, control, perception, electronics, and infrastructure, then bring those parts together in autonomous race vehicles.
We have won two world titles at the KIPR Autonomous Aerial Robot Tournament. Other results include Best Young Team at EnRicH 2023, 2nd Place Indoor at IMAV 2024, Best 3D Mapping at ENRICH 2025, and first place in the Silver multi-drone race at A2RL Season 2.
At the 27th RoboRacer competition during ICRA 2026, we finished 6th out of 36 teams. Ours was the first fully end-to-end reinforcement-learning entry to place in the top six at an international competition.
Research beyond the racetrack
Racing lets us test algorithms under tight timing and hardware limits. For NoctuaNet, we work with TU Wien's Cyber-Physical Systems Group on drones that detect, track, and intercept intruder aircraft. We test the system outdoors, including in wind and rain.
We will race again in Season 3 of A2RL. We also want to compare methods, share test results, and run joint experiments with research groups and other teams.
Partner with flyby racing
International racing takes hardware, compute, workshop time, and travel funding. Sponsors help cover those costs. We share the work through technical demos, competitions, and our public channels, and connect partners with the students building the vehicles.
Posedio, robo4you, and HTU Wien already support our work.
Build the next system with us
We are looking for students interested in machine learning, control, perception, electronics, or infrastructure. You will build and test autonomous vehicles, then take them to international competitions.