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Show HN: Only 1 LLM can fly a drone

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Re: Show HN: Only 1 LLM can fly a drone

#41

Post by infecto »

volkercraig wrote: post #31
notepad0x90 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't need a lot of things, but new tech should also address what people want, not just needs. I don't know how to pilot drones, nor do I care to learn how to, but I want to do things with drones, does that qualify as a need? Tech is there to do things for us we're too lazy to do.

I don't think you understand what an "LLM" is. They're text generators. We've had autopilot since the 1930s that relies on measurable things... like PID loops, direct sensor input. You don't need the "language model" part to run an autopilot, that's just silly.

My confusion maybe? Is this simulator just flying point a to b? Seems like it’s handling collisions while trying to locate the targets and identify them. That seems quite a bit more complex than what you are describing has been solved since the 1930s.

Re: Show HN: Only 1 LLM can fly a drone

#42

Post by infecto »

irl_zebra wrote: post #39
avaer wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using an LLM is the SOTA way to turn plain text instructions into embodied world behavior. Charitably, I guess you can question why you would ever want to use text to command a machine in the world (simulated or not). But I don't see how it's the wrong tool given the goal.

SOTA typically refers to achieving the best performance, not using the trendiest thing regardless of performance. There is some subtlety here. At some point an LLM might give the best performance in this task, but that day is not today, so an LLM is not SOTA, just trendy. It's kinda like rewriting something in Rust and calling it SOTA because that's the trend right now. Hope that makes sense.

I don’t think trendy is really the right word and maybe it’s not state of the art but a lot of us in the industry are seeing emerging capabilities that might make it SOTA. Hope that makes sense.

Re: Show HN: Only 1 LLM can fly a drone

#45

Post by broast »

On the discussion of the right or wrong tool, I find it possible that the ability to reason towards a goal is more valuable in the long run than an intrinsic ability to achieve the same result. Or maybe a mix of both is the ideal.

Re: Show HN: Only 1 LLM can fly a drone

#46

Post by coder543 »

iso1631 wrote: post #18
notepad0x90 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are almost endless reasons why. It's like asking why would you want a self-driving car. Having a drone to transport things would be amazing, or to patrol an area. LLMs can be helpful with object identification, reacting to different events, and taking commands from users. The first thought I had was those security guard robots that are popping up all over the place. if they were drones instead, and LLM talked t…

You want a self driving car You don't want an LLM to drive a car There is more to "AI" than LLMs

Waymo is certainly interested in using LLMs/VLMs for this purpose.

https://waymo.com/research/emma/

https://waymo.com/blog/2024/10/introducing-emma

https://waymo.com/blog/2025/12/demonstrably-safe-ai-for-auto...

Re: Show HN: Only 1 LLM can fly a drone

#47

Post by coder543 »

lewispollard wrote: post #11
notepad0x90 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are almost endless reasons why. It's like asking why would you want a self-driving car. Having a drone to transport things would be amazing, or to patrol an area. LLMs can be helpful with object identification, reacting to different events, and taking commands from users. The first thought I had was those security guard robots that are popping up all over the place. if they were drones instead, and LLM talked t…

The point is that you don't need an LLM to pilot the thing, even if you want to integrate an LLM interface to take a request in natural language.

An LLM that can't understand the environment properly can't properly reason about which command to give in response to a user's request. Even if the LLM is a very inefficient way to pilot the thing, being able to pilot means the LLM has the reasoning abilities required to also translate a user's request into commands that make sense for the more efficient, lower-level piloting subsystem.

Re: Show HN: Only 1 LLM can fly a drone

#48

Post by me551ah »

In a real world test you would have a tool call for the LLM which is a bit high level like GoTo(object) and the tool calls another program which identities the objects in frame and uses standard programs to go to that.

Re: Show HN: Only 1 LLM can fly a drone

#49

Post by SpyCoder77 »

modeless wrote: post #40

This is what VLA models are for. They would work much better. Would need a bit of fine tuning but probably not much. Lots of literature out there on using VLAs to control drones.

Did some research, found a model that is exactly that. https://cognitivedrone.github.io/
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