Conceptual Design of Human-Drone Communication in Collaborative Environments

Autonomous robots and drones will work collaboratively and cooperatively in tomorrow’s industry and agriculture. Before this becomes a reality, some form of standardised communication between man and machine must be established that specifically facilitates communication between autonomous machines and both trained and un-trained human actors in the working environment. We present preliminary results on a human-drone and a drone-human language situated in the agricultural industry where interactions with trained and untrained workers and visitors can be expected. We present basic visual indicators enhanced with flight patterns for drone-human interaction and human signaling based on aircraft marshalling for humane-drone interaction. We discuss preliminary results on image recognition and future work.