AR Drone Flight Display for Line-of-Sight Situational Awareness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Human operators face challenges in maintaining situational awareness while flying drones due to the need to look at the drone, operate a remote controller, and occasionally check a display, leading to potentially hazardous situations, especially in long distances or low light conditions, and current solutions require additional manual labor and communication.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus with an augmented reality display that overlays drone data, such as position and orientation symbols, onto a see-through display worn by the operator, allowing them to maintain a line of sight with the drone while receiving critical flight information, enhancing situational awareness without the need for a spotter.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the operator looks at the drone and operates the remote controller simultaneously, then the operator can maintain visual contact with the drone, but the operator's situational awareness deteriorates due to the need to occasionally check the display
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a spotter as an intermediary who maintains visual contact with the drone through binoculars and communicates position information to the operator. This allows the operator to focus on controlling the drone without needing to continuously monitor its position visually or check the display, thereby resolving the contradiction between maintaining visual contact and maintaining situational awareness
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical/physical act of the operator directly observing the drone with an optical system (binoculars used by the spotter) combined with auditory communication. This substitution allows the operator to receive drone position information through sound rather than sight, improving situational awareness while maintaining reliable visual contact
2Ease of operation
If a spotter is used to maintain visual contact with the drone, then the operator's situational awareness improves, but the operational complexity and costs increase due to requiring two people
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the spotter's role universal by equipping them with both binoculars for visual contact and communication capabilities to convey position information. This multi-functional approach consolidates the visual monitoring and information relay functions into a single auxiliary person, reducing the overall system complexity compared to having multiple specialized roles
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a visual copy of the drone's position as perceived by the spotter through binoculars and transmits this copied visual information to the operator via communication. This allows the operator to access drone position information without directly observing the drone, improving situational awareness while keeping the personnel requirement minimal
3Ease of operation
If the operator focuses on operating the remote controller, then the control precision improves, but the visual contact with the drone is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The spotter acts as an intermediary who assumes the visual monitoring function, allowing the operator to dedicate full attention to control operations. The spotter continuously observes the drone through binoculars and relays position information, ensuring reliable visual contact is maintained independently of the operator's focus on control precision
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the operational roles into two distinct functions: the operator handles control precision while the spotter handles visual contact and position monitoring. This role segmentation allows each person to optimize their specific function without compromise, with the operator achieving superior control precision and the spotter ensuring continuous visual contact
Data Source
AI summary
Apparatus, method, and software for assisting human operator in flying drone using remote controller. The apparatus includes an internal data communication interface configured to receive data from the remote controller, an augmented reality display configured to display the data, one or more memories including computer program code, and one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: superimpose, on the augmented reality display, a target symbol indicating a position of the drone while the human operator is looking towards the drone; superimpose, on the augmented reality display, an orientation symbol indicating an orientation of the drone while the human operator is looking towards the drone; obtain a geographic location related to the drone; and set a world marker on the obtained geographic location.