Gaze-Augmented Drone Navigation

Abstract

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones, has significantly increased over the past few years. There is a growing demand in the drone industry, creating new workforce opportunities such as package delivery, search and rescue, real estate, transportation, agriculture, infrastructure inspection, and many others, signifying the importance of effective and efficient control techniques. We propose a scheme for controlling a drone through gaze extracted from eye-trackers, enabling an operator to navigate through a series of way points. Then we demonstrate and test the utility of our approach through a pilot study against traditional controls. Our results indicate gaze as a promising control technique for navigating drones revealing novel research avenues.