UAVs Meet Embodied Intelligence: Bridging Human Intents and Flying Dynamics Via Harnessing Physical-Digital AI Agents

2026-09-16

AI Summary

论文探讨了通过融合物理-数字AI代理来解决无人机理解人类意图和飞行动态的问题，提出了5+5框架以实现适应性和持续进化的无人机自主性。

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) extend embodied intelligence into continuous three-dimensional space, where perception, reasoning, physical embodiment, and action are tightly coupled through flight and environmental interaction. Recent advances in foundation models, world models, and AI agents are shifting UAV autonomy from task-specific perception and control toward systems that can interpret human intent, understand open environments, reason about physical consequences, and organize complex behaviors under embodiment and flight-dynamic constraints. We characterize this emerging paradigm as UAV embodied intelligence (UAV EI) and distinguish it from its system realization, the embodied-intelligent UAV (EI UAV). To provide a unified view of the field, we introduce a 5+5 framework that describes UAV EI through five capability dimensions and EI UAVs through five architectural layers spanning physical embodiment, general cognition, embodied skills, external interaction, and system harnessing. Based on this framework, we systematically review recent progress in embodied morphology, embodied perception, world models, embodied planning, vision-language navigation, embodied manipulation, and embodied collaboration. We further identify long-horizon autonomy, predictive physical reasoning, test-time skill acquisition, and autonomous capability evolution as key challenges toward more general aerial embodied intelligence. Finally, we argue that harnessing physical-digital AI agents, through persistent coupling of digital intelligence with physical sensing, dynamics, action, and feedback, provides a system-level pathway toward adaptive and continuously evolving UAV autonomy. Project resources are available at our project website and GitHub repository.

Problem

• UAVs
• Embodied Intelligence
• Human Intents
• Flying Dynamics
• Physical-Digital AI Agents

Innovation

• UAV Embodied Intelligence
• Physical-Digital AI Agents
• Foundation Models
• World Models
• Adaptive Autonomy