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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

#11

Post by lewispollard »

notepad0x90 wrote: post #10
bigfishrunning wrote: post #2

Why would you want an LLM to fly a drone? Seems like the wrong tool for the job -- it's like saying "Only one power drill can pound roofing nails". Maybe that's true, but just get a hammer

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.

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

#12

Post by dan-bailey »

bigfishrunning wrote: post #2

Why would you want an LLM to fly a drone? Seems like the wrong tool for the job -- it's like saying "Only one power drill can pound roofing nails". Maybe that's true, but just get a hammer

When your only tool is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail.

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

#13

Post by notepad0x90 »

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.

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.

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

#15

Post by infecto »

bigfishrunning wrote: post #2

Why would you want an LLM to fly a drone? Seems like the wrong tool for the job -- it's like saying "Only one power drill can pound roofing nails". Maybe that's true, but just get a hammer

What’s the right tool then?

This looks like a pretty fun project and in my rough estimation a fun hacker project.

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

#16

Post by infecto »

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.

That’s a pretty boring point for what looks like a fun project. Happy to see this project and know I am not the only one thinking about these kinds of applications.

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

#17

Post by laffOr »

notepad0x90 wrote: post #10
bigfishrunning wrote: post #2

Why would you want an LLM to fly a drone? Seems like the wrong tool for the job -- it's like saying "Only one power drill can pound roofing nails". Maybe that's true, but just get a hammer

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 could have a program, not LLM-based but could be ANN, for flying and an LLM for overseeing; the LLM could give the program instructions to the pilot program as a (x,y,z) directions. I mean currently autopilots are typically not LLMs, right?

You describe why it would be useful to have an LLM in a drone to interact with it but do not explain why it is the very same LLM that should be doing the flying.

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

#18

Post by iso1631 »

notepad0x90 wrote: post #10
bigfishrunning wrote: post #2

Why would you want an LLM to fly a drone? Seems like the wrong tool for the job -- it's like saying "Only one power drill can pound roofing nails". Maybe that's true, but just get a hammer

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

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

#20

Post by bob1029 »

bigfishrunning wrote: post #2

Why would you want an LLM to fly a drone? Seems like the wrong tool for the job -- it's like saying "Only one power drill can pound roofing nails". Maybe that's true, but just get a hammer

The system prompt for the drone is hilarious to me. These models are horrible at spatial reasoning tasks:

https://github.com/kxzk/snapbench/blob/main/llm_drone/src/ma...

I've been working with integrating GPT-5.2 in Unity. It's fantastic at scripting but completely worthless at managing transforms for scene objects. Even with elaborate planning phases it's going to make a complete jackass of itself in world space every time.

LLMs are also wildly unsuitable for real-time control problems. They never will be. A PID controller or dedicated pathfinding tool being driven by the LLM will provide a radically superior result.

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