Riding the Rollercoaster: Improving UAV Piloting Skills with Augmented Visualization and Collaborative Planning

Operating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in complex environments can be challenging, particularly for inexperienced operators. This paper introduces a method aimed at enhancing the piloting experience by incorporating an intermediary processing layer between the remote controller and the drone. The presented approach empowers operators to control both the speed and direction of the UAV along a secure path, which is continuously computed and overlaid onto the operator's camera stream. The UAV autonomously plans and executes this path, adapting to the operator's commands and en-vironmental changes. The primary aim of this proposed solution is to enhance the operator's situational awareness, perception, as well as the safety and efficiency of UAV navigation. The paper outlines the system and methodology employed, showing its ability to operate at a high enough frequency to enable seamless user interactions. Furthermore, to validate the effectiveness of this approach, a real-world test and a user-based experimental study conducted in a simulation environment with an audience comprising varying levels of pilot expertise have been carried out.