SwarmGlove: A Wearable Tactile Device for Navigation of Swarm of Drones in VR Environment

Abstract

Navigation of the quadcopters with tactile feedback has been extensively studied for the cases of single drone. However, the operation of the swarm is a complex task, which requires intuitive interaction. We introduce wearable tactile device aimed at control of the formation with impedance interlinks. Tactile patterns representing dynamics of the swarm (extension or contraction) are proposed. The user feels the state of the swarm at the fingertips and receives valuable information, which, coupled with visual feedback, improves the controllability of the complex life-like formation. In order to demonstrate capabilities of the technology, we developed VR applications in Unity, in which user guides the swarm in the virtual city and village environments through both static and dynamic obstacles to avoid collisions.