Vocalics in Human-Drone Interaction

As the presence of flying robots continues to grow in both commercial and private sectors, it necessitates an understanding of appropriate methods for nonverbal interaction with humans. While visual cues, such as gestures incorporated into trajectories, are more apparent and thoroughly researched, a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2023-12
Main Authors: Lieser, Marc, Schwanecke, Ulrich
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustics
Audio visual equipment
Communications equipment
Cues
Drone aircraft
Trajectories
Visual flight
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:As the presence of flying robots continues to grow in both commercial and private sectors, it necessitates an understanding of appropriate methods for nonverbal interaction with humans. While visual cues, such as gestures incorporated into trajectories, are more apparent and thoroughly researched, acoustic cues have remained unexplored, despite their potential to enhance human-drone interaction. Given that additional audiovisual and sensory equipment is not always desired or practicable, and flight noise often masks potential acoustic communication in rotary-wing drones, such as through a loudspeaker, the rotors themselves offer potential for nonverbal communication. In this paper, quadrotor trajectories are augmented by acoustic information that does not visually affect the flight, but adds audible information that significantly facilitates distinctiveness. A user study (N=192) demonstrates that sonically augmenting the trajectories of two aerial gestures makes them more easily distinguishable. This enhancement contributes to human-drone interaction through onboard means, particularly in situations where the human cannot see or look at the drone.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.2312.17668