What can AI-controlled drones teach us about industrial process control?

At Luffy AI, we use drones as a research platform — not because we build drones, but because they represent one of the most challenging control problems in engineering.

A drone is a complex, many-input, many-output (MIMO) system with constant disturbances (wind, turbulence, shifting payloads) that require precise real-time adjustments. Traditional PID tuning struggles with these dynamic conditions, making drones an ideal testbed for adaptive intelligence in control systems.

Here’s why this matters to industrial automation:

(1) Nonlinear, highly dynamic processes:

Just like drones, industrial processes in oil & gas, power, paper & pulp, mining & metals and life sciences experience constantly changing conditions. Many factors affect control performance such as ambient conditions, mechanical wear and sensor noise. Our AI-driven control adapts without manual tuning, improving stability and efficiency.

(2) Ultra-efficient AI:

Our bio-inspired Adaptive Neural Systems are incredibly lightweight, requiring just a few hundred bytes of memory to optimise control in real time. We also do not use any cloud connections for AI training. This makes edge deployment in industrial environments seamless. We are currently able to deploy hundreds of agents inside one PLC for example.

(3) Robust, self-learning control:

Whether it's compensating for boiler load fluctuations, chemical process variability, or turbine efficiency drift, adaptive intelligence can outperform traditional PID loops —reducing downtime and improving yield.

This is why I’m excited about what we’re building. Drones are an excellent ongoing research platform for us, but our technology is built to transform real-world industrial automation.

If you’re working on complex, non-linear, high-value control systems, and you're looking for a step change in performance, let’s chat!

I’d love to explore how adaptive intelligence can optimise and future-proof your processes.

Thank you to NATEP

We are grateful to the National Aerospace Technology Exploitation Programme (NATEP) for supporting our work and enabling us to continue advancing cutting-edge control systems.

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