Line-of-sight in operating a small unmanned aerial vehicle: How far can a quadcopter fly in line-of-sight?

Mental workload assessments of aerial photography missions performed by novice unmanned aerial vehicle operators

BACKGROUND

Mental workload is one of the important variables in understanding human performance in drone operation.

OBJECTIVE

To test the effects of gender, age group, flight route, and altitude on the flight performance and mental workload of the novice drone operators.

METHODS

Ten male and 10 female participants without prior drone operating experience joined. They were split into two age groups. After attending a training, the participants operated a drone to perform photo taking missions under flight route and altitude conditions. The weighted NASA task-load-index (TLX), modified Cooper-Harper (MCH) scale, heart rate, and interbeat interval were measured to assess the mental workload of the participants. Flight time to complete the mission was adopted to indicate flight performance.

RESULTS

The effect of age group was significant (p <  0.05) on flight time, weighted TLX score, and MCH score. Flight route and altitude were not significant on the two subjective ratings and two cardiac measures.

CONCLUSION

The flight performance of younger participants was significantly better than that of their older counterpart. The effects of both the flight route and altitude on the perceived mental workload of the drone operators were insignificant. Both the weighted NASA TLX and MCH scales were appropriate in measuring the mental workload of the novice drone operators.

Perceived difficulty, flight information access, and performance of male and female novice drone operators

BACKGROUND: Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones are becoming popular in both commerce and private usage. Behaviors of novice drone operators are critical to UAV flight safety. OBJECTIVES: This study aims at discovering the perceived difficulty, flight information access frequency, and flight performance of novice drone operators. METHODS: Twenty adults without prior experience joined as human participants. After attending an onsite training, they operated a drone to perform three missions. The subjective rating of mission difficulty, frequency of flight information checked, and time to complete the mission were analysed. RESULTS: The results indicated significance of gender effects on the difficulty experienced by the novices. Females reported significantly higher difficulty ratings than males initially. This gender difference diminished later in their last mission. Frequency of flight information access was negatively correlated with the difficulty experienced by the operators. Operators who checked flight information more often had less difficulty in performing the flight missions. CONCLUSIONS: There were gender effects in the perceived difficulty and flight information access in drone operations for novices. Such information is helpful in drone operator training and drone design considering drone operation safety.

Distance and Visual Angle of Line-of-Sight of a Small Drone

Determining the distance of the line-of-sight (LOS) of a small drone is essential in both regulating drone operation and drone operator training considering public safety. A field experiment was conducted to determine the LOS distance and visual angle of a small drone. Human participants were requested to observe a drone in one of the predetermined locations in the air. They responded whether they could see and hear the drone using a five-point scale. It was found that auditory signals were insignificant in drone detection because most of the participants could not hear the drone while they could still see the drone in most of the test locations. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to predict the probability of catching the drone visually. Two models were built considering the “definitely yes” and “definitely or probably yes” criteria of visual detection. These models may be used to estimate the LOS distance and visual angle. Assuming a 50% probability of visual catching and the “definitely or probably yes” criterion, the distance and visual angle of the LOS for the Mavic Air drone without a protector were approximately 307 m and 0.065°, respectively.