Haptic Interface For UAV Collision Avoidance

User Interface Design Recommendations for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS)

“…One issue unique to UAS operation is the absence or degradation of multi-sensory feedback inherent in manned flight: movement, vibrations, sounds, etc. This relative lack of sensory feedback results in loss of SA (Lam, Mulder, & Van Paassen, 2007). Lam et al (2007) found that haptic warnings were effective in assisting teleoperators in avoiding collisions when visual information was insufficient.…”

“…This relative lack of sensory feedback results in loss of SA (Lam, Mulder, & Van Paassen, 2007). Lam et al (2007) found that haptic warnings were effective in assisting teleoperators in avoiding collisions when visual information was insufficient. Haptic and aural displays have the potential to ameliorate both of the issues associated with external pilot teleoperation by reducing mental workload and supplementing insufficient visual information (Lam, et al, 2007;Lam, Delannoy, Mulder, & Van Paassen, 2005).…”

Stiffness-Force Feedback in UAV Tele-Operation

“…Because a control device is generally limited in its deflections, there is also a limit to the amplitude of the force feedback, i.e., a natural constraint to the force feedback gain. In previous studies, Lam et al found that the amplitudes of stick motions due to neutral position changes may contribute to workload (Lam et al, 2007;Lam et al, 2008). In particular when flying through a narrow corridor, or when moving along multiple smaller and closely-spaced obstacles, these force offsets may vary continuously.…”

“…In general, the trajectories (scenarios) were the same as was used in (Lam et al, 2007). The difference was the absence of a reference path in this experiment.…”

“…Previous research efforts indicated that a haptic interface, using force feedback via a haptic control device, can be used to complement the visual interface. Haptic feedback provides information about the environment through the sense of touch (Lam et al, 2004;Lam et al, 2007). Indeed, the multi-sensory haptic interface improved operator performance and significantly reduced the number of collisions, leading to an overall highly increased level of safety (Lam et al, 2007).…”