As the application potential for drones continues to grow, more and more jobs involving inspection, search and rescue, or even medical supply delivery could demand the ability to accurately control these small unmanned aerial devices.
Currently, the most common approach to drone control is a joystick. And as anyone who’s ever had to manipulate one of those claw games as your child wears a facial expression wherein any hope for their happiness relies on your ability to extract a particular toy or stuffed animal can attest – joystick control can be tricky and take some time to master.
So with this in mind, and in hopes of not disappointing those who carry even more clout than my triumvirate of daughters, a team at the research organization EPFL has been investigating drone controls based on torso movements.
The thought is that these movements are not only more natural but allow the operator to use their head and eyes to look around in getting a better feel for their environment. Essentially, they can fly the drone like a bird. The intuitive movements also make drone operation easier to learn and allow those flying it to spend less time focused on well, flying it, and more time focused on the core task.
To test their theory, operators were outfitted with virtual reality headsets and strategically placed markers on the upper body that monitored movements and muscular activity as they piloted a drone through a simulated landscape. Motion patterns emerged that allowed the team to establish four locations on the torso where motion controls could be placed. They also found that torso drone control outperformed joystick control in precision and reliability while demanding less training.
Next steps will involve integrating this research into a wearable – a prototype of which has already been developed.