A research study on the benefits of VR for controlling a swarm of drones.
We believe the spatial awareness and intuitiveness of virtual reality interfaces provide unique advantages over current 2D interfaces for operators to navigate dynamic three dimensional environments created when controlling a swarm of UAVs.
Our study compares tradiational 2D and 3D interfaces with our virtual reality interface. The study simulates a fleet of drones as they blindly make delivery trips across the warehouse floor. The drones can’t sense each other, so whenever they are about to crash the particpant should predict the crash press the safety button to prevent damage. Colliding UAVs will disappear, but pressing the safety button will prevent the crash (equipment damage). The UAVs are highlighted with a collision bubble and will flash red upon a collision and yellow upon successful save to provide the user with visual feedback.
We are conducting the study on 30+ particpants and plan on publishing our results.
All technical development of the project was done by Peru Dayani, Xin Chin and David McPherson.
Video Demo: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1l4kpz3xnKQS9mBi0SAZGyTgTCa44eOaS