Thumbs up or Pointing? Guiding a Delivery Drone under Uncertainty in Public Space
Paper in proceeding, 2026
Drones will soon deliver packages to recipients in public spaces, where drones may encounter difficulties identifying safe drop-off locations. Such uncertainties can reduce trust and raise safety concerns. This augmented reality study investigates how recipients perceive being asked to guide the drone in uncertain situations using hand gestures, and to what extent they feel comfortable with different levels of involvement. Results show that participants preferred a basic level of involvement, which received higher trust and usability scores than either no or high involvement. We recommend involving recipients in the final stage of delivery to not only support drone operations but also improve recipient trust and clarity in uncertain conditions.
Delivery application
User control
Augmented Reality
Public
Human-Drone Interaction
Author
Shiva Nischal Lingam
Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR)
Eindhoven University of Technology
Jakub Woziwodzki
Eindhoven University of Technology
Mohammad Obaid
Chalmers, Computer Science and Engineering (Chalmers), Interaction Design and Software Engineering
University of Gothenburg
Marieke Martens
Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO)
Eindhoven University of Technology
Pavlo Bazilinskyy
Eindhoven University of Technology
Hai 2025 Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human Agent Interaction
473-475
9798400721786 (ISBN)
13th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction, HAI 2025
Yokohama, Japan,
Yokohama, Japan,
Subject Categories (SSIF 2025)
Human Computer Interaction
DOI
10.1145/3765766.3765837