Human-Swarm Interaction with a Gesture-Controlled Aerial Robot

Formation for Safety Monitoring Applications

Giuseppe Silano, Vít Krátký, Matouš Vrba, Christos Papaioannidis, Ioannis Mademlis,

Robert Pěnička, Ioannis Pitas, and Martin Saska

This paper presents a formation control approach for contactless Human-Swarm Interaction (HSI) using hand gestures with a team of multi-rotor Unamnned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). The approach aims to monitor the safety of human workers, especially those working at heights. In the proposed scheme, one UAV acts as the leader of the formation and is equipped with sensors for human worker detection and gesture recognition. The follower UAV maintain a predetermined formation relative to the worker's position, thereby providing additional perspectives of the monitored scene. The use of hand gestures allows the human worker to specify movements and action commands for the UAV team, without the need for an additional communication channel or specific markers including the relative distance. Field experiments with three UAVs and a human worker in a mock-up scenario showcase the effectiveness and responsiveness of the proposed approach.

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Aerial-Core European project