Drone Flight Behavior as User Interface
Michiel Molenaar (2024) coached by Mendel Broekhuijsen, Nischal Lingam
Description
Developments in drone technology have made a future where autonomous drones are assisting first responders at accident sites probable. People observing these drones from the ground might however be confused if they do not know what an autonomous drone at an accident site is doing. This provides an opportunity for the design of feedback and feed-forward systems to inform these unknowing bystanders of the task of a drone. These systems might for example use sound, light or haptic feedback but this requires hardware to be added to a medical drone. Why not use the abilities which any autonomous drone already has to communicate its task to bystanders by altering its flight behaviour based on the task it is doing. This project explores this concept by designing and evaluating a medical drone which communicates with bystanders on the ground using altered flight behaviour.
