Microsoft has been investing more and more on artificial intelligence, and today, the Redmond company is giving developers new ways to train autonomous systems such as cars and drones. Specifically, those who work on Unity will now be able to use AirSim, an open-source system which is designed to help train those systems using AI.
AirSim provides developers with simulation tools including "realistic environments, vehicle dynamics, and multi-modal sensing", which allow developers and researchers to train their autonomous vehicles for real-life situations using tools such as Bonsai, which Microsoft acquired earlier this year.
Using AirSim means that training these systems can be faster and safer than doing so with real-life testing since it reduces the limitations and risks involved with it. Once the training has been completed, models can be deployed onto actual hardware to be tested and used in the real world.
AirSim on Unity is available as an experimental release on GitHub, after being available for the Unreal Engine for a while. You can learn more about it this release on Unity"s own blog. To know more about the uses of AirSim itself, you can also check out the initial announcement from last year.