STANFORD – A four-foot-long helicopter flew itself over the Stanford University campus on Monday in a test of artificial intelligence that researchers say could be used to scout wildfires or on military missions.

The autonomous helicopter performed flips, rolls, pirouettes, stall-turns, knife-edges, and an inverted hover over a field.

The helicopter is equipped with an artificial intelligence system developed by computer scientists at Stanford and taught itself to fly by watching the aerobatics of a radio-controlled helicopter flown by a human.

“These helicopters can fly maneuvers at the edge of what a helicopter is capable of,” said Adam Coates, a PhD student who worked on the project.

The helicopters, which communicate with a ground-based computer that guides