Safe navigation control for a quadcopter using user's arm commands

The goal in this paper is to introduce an intuitive way to control a VTOL vehicle (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) using commands from an user, i.e., the idea is to provide a non cumbersome easy-to-handle interface that will allow even inexpert users a safe command interface for this kind of vehicles. The aerial vehicle chosen for validating this safe-control-scheme is the quadcopter vehicle. The user will use a bracelet composed by inertial (gyroscopes, accelerometers and magnetometers) and electromyographic sensors that will measure the arm user movements and construe them in references for the drone. In order to achieve this, the data acquired from the bracelet has to undergo a signal treatment and safety algorithms were put in place. A method for gesture recognition was developed in order to fully exploit the capabilities of both, the user and the UAV - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Data collection and analysis were performed to improve the algorithms. Experimental tests with real time flight were performed to validate the proposed safe-control-scheme. Main graphs illustrate the satisfactory results obtained when controlling the quadcopter vehicle in acrobatic maneuvers.