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Foundation models excel in tasks such as content generation, zero-shot classifications, and reasoning. However, they struggle with sensing, interacting, and actuating in the physical world due to their dependence on limited sensors and actuators in providing timely contextual information or physical interactions. This reliance restricts the system’s adaptability and coverage. To address these issues and create an embodied AI with foundation models (FMs), we introduce Embodied Reconfigurable Drone Agent (EmbodiedRDA). EmbodiedRDA features a custom drone platform that can autonomously swap payloads to reconfigure itself with a diverse list of sensors and actuators. We designed FM agents to instruct the drone to equip itself with appropriate physical modules, analyze sensor data, make decisions, and control the drone’s actions. This enables the system to perform a variety of tasks in dynamic physical environments, bridging the gap between the digital and physical worlds.
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This content will become publicly available on May 6, 2026
FlexiFly: Interfacing the Physical World with Foundation Models Empowered by Reconfigurable Drone Systems
Foundation models (FM) have shown immense human-like capabilities for generating digital media. However, foundation models that can freely sense, interact, and actuate the physical domain is far from being realized. This is due to 1) requiring dense deployments of sensors to fully cover and analyze large spaces, while 2) events often being localized to small areas, making it difficult for FMs to pinpoint relevant areas of interest relevant to the current task. We propose FlexiFly, a platform that enables FMs to “zoom in” and analyze relevant areas with higher granularity to better understand the physical environment and carry out tasks. FlexiFly accomplishes by introducing 1) a novel image segmentation technique that aids in identifying relevant locations and 2) a modular and reconfigurable sensing and actuation drone platform that FMs can actuate to “zoom in” with relevant sensors and actuators. We demonstrate through real smart home deployments that FlexiFly enables FMs and LLMs to complete diverse tasks up to 85% more successfully. FlexiFly is critical step towards FMs and LLMs that can naturally interface with the physical world.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1943396
- PAR ID:
- 10592096
- Publisher / Repository:
- ACM
- Date Published:
- ISBN:
- 9798400714795
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 463 to 476
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- UC Irvine Student Center. Irvine CA USA
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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