After you connect an AI assistant to Dronelink, you can ask it to find, read, make and change your plans. You type a request in the chat. The assistant then uses the Dronelink connector to do the work. To connect an assistant, see Connect an AI Assistant.
WARNING: Before you fly a plan that an assistant made or changed, open the plan in Dronelink. Check the route, the altitudes, the camera, the flight time and each Command component. A command can turn off obstacle avoidance or change the return-home altitude. An assistant can make mistakes. The pilot in command is responsible for each flight.
What an Assistant Can Do
- Show your accounts, repositories and plans.
- Read a plan: its components, altitudes, speeds, flight time and distance.
- Estimate a plan before it saves the plan: the flight time, the distance, the altitudes, the photos and the warnings.
- Make a new plan in a repository, with Map, Orbit, Waypoints, Inspection and Facade components. It can also add Photo, Pano, Checkpoint, Hover, Wait, Heading, Rotation, Disengage, Label, List and Command components.
- Set the actions at a waypoint or a marker: take a photo, start or stop a video or interval photos, and add Command, List, Wait, Disengage and Label components. The drone does not stop at an action. It starts the action as it passes the waypoint, and it flies on.
- Set the points of an Inspection, with the gimbal angle and the photos at each point.
- Change a plan: change its name and description, and add, change or remove components.
- Set most of the settings that the planner shows. For example: the speeds and the climb and descent rates, the action when the mission completes, the map pattern, spacing and camera settings, the gimbal angle, the drone heading, the points of interest, the orbit's final altitude and radius, the path shape, and restriction zones.
- Show the cameras that a Map component can use.
What an Assistant Cannot Do
- It cannot delete a plan or a repository, and it cannot add a repository.
- It cannot start or control a flight.
- It cannot add or change DJI Waypoints or DJI2 Waypoints components. It can read them and remove them.
- It cannot add an action that moves the drone, such as a Hover, a Heading or a Rotation, at a waypoint or a marker. To stop at a place, ask it to end the Waypoints component there and add the component after it.
- It cannot add or change scripts or a custom camera. It cannot change an action that holds a script.
- It cannot add a Facade with a circle or spiral face. It can read a stored one and remove it.
- If a Waypoints component has markers, it cannot move the waypoints. It cannot change the boundary of a linear map, and it cannot change a map between a linear and an area pattern.
- It cannot make a plan that follows terrain (AGL). In a component whose altitudes are not above the takeoff point, such as a terrain follow component, it cannot change the altitudes or the waypoints. It cannot move a component that follows terrain.
- It cannot see the members of an account, their emails, billing data, flight records or media.
- It can use only the features of the account's plan. For example, most Command components need a plan that includes commands.
If an assistant saves a plan in a public repository, anyone can see the plan.
Facades
To plan a Facade around a building, the assistant gives the corners of the building in order. The order of the corners tells Dronelink which side of the walls is the outside. Dronelink refuses a facade that flies on the inner side of the walls, and it tells the assistant how to correct it. It also refuses a path that comes nearer than 2 m (6.6 ft) to the walls, or nearer than half of the distance that you asked for. Each refusal tells the assistant the cause.
WARNING: The assistant cannot see the building, the trees or the wires near it. Dronelink checks the path against the outline that the assistant gives, not against the real building. Before you fly, open the plan in Dronelink, and make sure that the outline matches the building and that the path is clear.
Altitudes
An assistant sets each altitude above the takeoff point. These altitudes do not follow the terrain. The altitudes start from the point where the drone takes off.
WARNING: The altitudes do not follow the terrain. If the ground, a tree or a building in the flight area is higher than the takeoff point, the drone flies lower above it. The drone can hit it. Before you fly, compare each altitude with the highest ground and obstacles along the route.
If you take off above the flight area, the drone flies higher above the ground than the plan altitude. Make sure that this height obeys the rules where you fly.
Dronelink gives the assistant a warning when an altitude is below 20 m (66 ft), below the takeoff point, or above 120 m (400 ft). The assistant can fail to show you this warning. Dronelink does not stop these altitudes. Make sure that each altitude obeys the rules where you fly.
Changes and Versions
Each change from an assistant saves a new version of the plan. To go back to an earlier version, open the plan in the web app. Then use the Versions menu.
CAUTION: Revert deletes all versions after the version that you select. This includes later changes that people made.
CAUTION: Save and close the plan before you ask an assistant to change it. If the plan is open in Dronelink when an assistant changes it, you lose the changes that you did not save.
Example Requests
Give the location as a latitude and a longitude. An assistant can find the wrong place from an address.
- "List my Dronelink accounts, and tell me how many plans each one has."
- "Read the plan 'North Field'. Tell me its flight time, distance and highest altitude."
- "In my Dronelink account, plan a map named 'Survey test'. Make the area a square of 80 m on each side, centered on 30.2672, -97.7431. Fly at 50 m above the takeoff point with the wide camera of my Mavic 3E. Estimate it first, and tell me the time, the photo count and any warnings. Then save the plan."
- "Plan an orbit around 30.2672, -97.7431: radius 30 m, 40 m above the takeoff point, one full circle, with video."
- "Plan a waypoints path named 'Square path' that starts at 30.2672, -97.7431 and flies a square with 60 m sides, at 40 m and 5 m/s."
- "In the plan 'Survey test', change the map altitude to 70 m, and tell me the new flight time."
- "Add a Facade around a 30 m by 20 m building centered on 30.2690, -97.7431, 8 m from the walls, from 10 m to 30 m above the takeoff point. Estimate it first."
- "In the plan 'Square path', take a photo at the second waypoint."
Limits
- A new plan can have up to 5 Map, Orbit, Waypoints, Inspection and Facade components, and up to 100 components in total. One change request can add the same number, and it can make up to 20 changes.
- An Inspection can have up to 500 points, with up to 20 actions at each point.
- A Waypoints component can have up to 1,000 waypoints.
- A Map area can be up to 250 acres (101 ha). Dronelink gives the assistant a warning when the area is more than 100 acres (40 ha).
- A list of plans shows up to 50 plans at a time. The assistant can ask for the next plans.
- A search by plan name reads 500 plans at a time, from the most recently opened or changed. The assistant can ask it to continue.
- Each point of a plan must be within 15 km (9.3 mi) of the plan's location.
- Assistants have a daily limit of new plans for each account. They also have daily limits of changes for each plan and for each account.
Your Data
The assistant receives the Dronelink data that it reads. This data includes account names, repository names, plan names and descriptions, and the locations and settings of plans. The company of the assistant, such as Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI or Google, processes this data under its own terms and privacy policy.
Dronelink does not send the members of an account, their emails, billing data, flight records or media to an assistant. For more information, see the Dronelink Privacy Policy.