Enhancing Human-Drone Interaction with Human-Meaningful Visual Feedback and Shared-Control Strategies

Recent developments in the capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have made them suitable for use in various industrial settings. Their ability to access difficult and remote locations, as well as providing remote manipulation and visual inspection capabilities, make them valuable for various industrial applications. However, operating UAVs can be challenging, particularly in cluttered environments. This research aims to enhance the teleoperation experience by providing human-meaningful information on the remote user interface, thereby improving the operator’s situational awareness. Shared autonomy routines utilizing the previously collected information are also developed to further assist the operator with challenging control tasks. The proposed system has been tested in simulated environments and on actual hardware.