AeroHaptix: A Wearable Vibrotactile Feedback System for Enhancing Collision Avoidance in UAV Teleoperation

TL;DR

AeroHaptix is a wearable vibrotactile system that improves UAV collision avoidance by providing multi-directional obstacle feedback, enhancing situational awareness without interfering with operator control.

Contribution

The paper introduces AeroHaptix, a novel wearable haptic system with optimized actuator layout and a multi-directional feedback algorithm for UAV teleoperation.

Findings

Reduced collision rates with AeroHaptix compared to no feedback

Operators preferred AeroHaptix over force feedback for situational awareness

System achieved uniform spatial coverage and minimized perceptual biases

Abstract

Haptic feedback enhances collision avoidance by providing directional obstacle information to operators during unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) teleoperation. However, such feedback is often rendered via haptic joysticks, which are unfamiliar to UAV operators and limited to single-direction force feedback. Additionally, the direct coupling between the input device and the feedback method diminishes operators' sense of control and induces oscillatory movements. To overcome these limitations, we propose AeroHaptix, a wearable haptic feedback system that uses spatial vibrations to simultaneously communicate multiple obstacle directions to operators, without interfering with their input control. The layout of vibrotactile actuators was optimized via a perceptual study to eliminate perceptual biases and achieve uniform spatial coverage. A novel rendering algorithm, MultiCBF, extended control barrier functions to support multi-directional feedback. Our system evaluation showed that compared to a no-feedback condition, AeroHaptix effectively reduced the number of collisions and input disagreement. Furthermore, operators reported that AeroHaptix was more helpful than force feedback, with improved situational awareness and comparable workload.