Opportunities and Challenges in Human-Swarm Interaction: Systematic Review and Research Implications

We conducted a Systematic Literature Review on scientific papers that examined the interaction between operators and drone swarms based on the use of a command and control center. We present the results of a meta-analysis of nine scientific papers published in the ACM DL and IEEE Xplore databases. Our findings show that research on human-drone swarm interaction shows a disproportionate interest in hand gestures compared to other input modalities for drone swarm control. Furthermore, all articles reviewed exclusively explored gestures and the size of the swarm used in the studies was limited, with a median of 3.0 and an average of 3.8 drones per study. We compiled an inventory of interaction modalities, recognition techniques, and application types from the scientific literature, which is presented in this paper. On the basis of our findings, we propose four areas for future research that can guide scientific investigations and practical developments in this field. Keywords—Human swarm interactions; input modalities; swarm control