Third-Person Piloting: Increasing Situational Awareness using a Spatially Coupled Second Drone

We propose Third-Person Piloting, a novel drone manipulation interface that increases situational awareness using an interactive third-person perspective from a second, spatially coupled drone. The pilot uses a controller with a manipulatable miniature drone. Our algorithm understands the relationship between the pilot’s eye position and the miniature drone and ensures that the same spatial relationship is maintained between the two real drones in the sky. This allows the pilot to obtain various third-person perspectives by changing the orientation of the miniature drone while maintaining standard the primary drone control using the conventional controller. We design and implement a working prototype with programmable drones and propose several representative operation scenarios. We gather user feedback to obtain initial insights of our interface design from novices, advanced beginners, and experts. Result shows that our interface was positively evaluated by all of them, and their feedback suggests the additional interactive third-person perspective increases spatial awareness and helps their primary drone manipulation.