The use of gaze to control drones
John Paulin Hansen, Alexandre Alapetite, Ian Scott MacKenzie, Emilie Møllenbach · 2014
This paper presents an experimental investigation of gaze-based control modes for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or "drones"). Ten participants performed a simple flying task. We gathered empirical measures, including task completion time, and examined the user experience for difficulty, reliability, and fun. Four control modes were tested, with each mode applying a combination of x-y gaze movement and manual (keyboard) input to control speed (pitch), altitude, rotation (yaw), and drafting (roll). Participants had similar task completion times for all four control modes, but one combination was considered significantly more reliable than the others. We discuss design and performance issues for the gaze-plus-manual split of controls when drones are operated using gaze in conjunction with tablets, near-eye displays (glasses), or monitors.