The State-of-the-Art of Human–Drone Interaction: A Survey

Abstract

Drones have expanded from military operations to performing a broad range of civilian applications. As drone usage increases, humans will interact with such systems more often, therefore, it is important to achieve a natural human-drone interaction. Although some knowledge can be derived from the field of human-robot interaction, drones can fly in a 3D space, which essentially changes how humans can interact with them, making human-drone interaction a field of its own. This paper is the first survey on the emerging field of human-drone interaction focusing on multi-rotor systems, providing an overview of existing literature and the current state of the art in the field. This work begins with an analysis and comparison of the drone models that are commonly used by end-users and researchers in the field of human-drone interaction. Following, the current state of the field is discussed, including the roles of humans in HDI, innovative control methods, remaining aspects of interaction, and novelty drone prototypes and applications. This paper concludes by presenting a discussion of current challenges and future work in the field of human-drone interaction.