SlingDrone: Mixed Reality System for Pointing and Interaction Using a Single Drone
This addresses the need for more natural and device-free interaction in mixed reality environments, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing drone and VR technologies.
The authors tackled the problem of intuitive pointing and interaction in mixed reality by developing SlingDrone, a system that uses a micro-quadrotor with a slingshot motion and force feedback, enabling tasks like manipulation without handheld devices.
We propose SlingDrone, a novel Mixed Reality interaction paradigm that utilizes a micro-quadrotor as both pointing controller and interactive robot with a slingshot motion type. The drone attempts to hover at a given position while the human pulls it in desired direction using a hand grip and a leash. Based on the displacement, a virtual trajectory is defined. To allow for intuitive and simple control, we use virtual reality (VR) technology to trace the path of the drone based on the displacement input. The user receives force feedback propagated through the leash. Force feedback from SlingDrone coupled with visualized trajectory in VR creates an intuitive and user friendly pointing device. When the drone is released, it follows the trajectory that was shown in VR. Onboard payload (e.g. magnetic gripper) can perform various scenarios for real interaction with the surroundings, e.g. manipulation or sensing. Unlike HTC Vive controller, SlingDrone does not require handheld devices, thus it can be used as a standalone pointing technology in VR.