Firefighters' Perceptions on Collaboration and Interaction with Autonomous Drones: Results of a Field Trial

TL;DR

This study explores firefighters' perceptions of autonomous drones in emergency response, highlighting visual interaction effectiveness and challenges with audio interfaces, and discusses potential impacts on firefighting workflows and training.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into firefighter perceptions of autonomous drones through field trials, emphasizing interaction preferences and operational implications.

Findings

Visual interaction deemed adequate by firefighters

Audio interfaces caused information overload

Drones may shift human roles towards supervisory tasks

Abstract

Applications of drones in emergency response, like firefighting, have been promoted in the past decade. As the autonomy of drones continues to improve, the ways in which they are integrated into firefighting teams and their impact on crews are changing. This demands more understanding of how firefighters perceive and interact with autonomous drones. This paper presents a drone-based system for emergency operations with which firefighters can interact through sound, lights, and a graphical user interface. We use interviews with stakeholders collected in two field trials to explore their perceptions of the interaction and collaboration with drones. Our result shows that firefighters perceived visual interaction as adequate. However, for audio instructions and interfaces, information overload emerges as an essential problem. The potential impact of drones on current work configurations may involve shifting the position of humans closer to supervisory decision-makers and changing the training structure and content.