When Large Language Models Meet UAVs: How Far Are We?

Abstract: The integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and LLMs has emerged as a research direction of growing interest, with the potential to address challenges in autonomous decision-making, human-UAV interaction, and real-time adaptability. However, existing studies have remained largely in preliminary exploration with a limited understanding of real-world practice, risking a misalignment between academic research and practical needs and hindering the translation of results. To examine and address these potential challenges, we conducted an empirical study of 74 selected papers and 56 public GitHub projects, identified nine task types for LLMs in UAV systems, and quantified their distribution. Our findings show that academic research emphasizes theoretical modeling and task optimization with dispersed attention across tasks. In contrast, industrial projects focus on flight control, task planning, and human-machine interaction, prioritizing operability and efficiency. To further capture industry perspectives, we distributed an online questionnaire. We obtained 52 valid responses: 40.4% of practitioners have attempted to apply LLMs to UAV tasks. We further identify factors that impede real-world integration, including technological maturity, performance, safety, cost, and other considerations. Finally, we highlight challenges for future development and provide recommendations.