Development and Evaluation of a Wearable Vibrotactile Feedback Interface for Delivering Drone Position Information

This paper proposes a wearable vibrotactile feedback interface in the form of an abdominal belt to convey a drone’s three-dimensional position information to a user. The belt integrates a 3 by 12 array of small vibration motors around the waist. Drone azimuth, altitude, and distance are encoded through the spatial position and intensity of the vibration cues sent to the user. This vibrotactile feedback allows users to perceive the drone’s position intuitively without relying on visual or auditory feedback. The proposed system was implemented and evaluated through a user study with 12 participants. After a brief training session, users could identify the drone’s position with an average accuracy of 82.8% and mean response time of 3.1 s. Additionally, participants provided positive subjective evaluations of the interface’s usability and effectiveness. These results demonstrate that the proposed abdominal vibrotactile interface effectively delivers a drone’s three-dimensional position to its operator and enhances spatial awareness in human-drone interaction while reducing dependence on visual and auditory feedback channels.