Citation: Kim, K. User Preferences in
Drone Design and Operation. Drones
2022, 6, 133. https://doi.org/
10.3390/drones6050133
Academic Editors:
Andrzej Łukaszewicz,
Wojciech Giernacki,
Zbigniew Kulesza, Jaroslaw Pytka
and Andriy Holovatyy
Received: 22 April 2022
Accepted: 21 May 2022
Published: 23 May 2022
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Article
User Preferences in Drone Design and Operation
Kyungdoh Kim
Department of Industrial & Data Engineering, Hongik University, Seoul 04066, Korea;
kyungdoh.kim@hongik.ac.kr; Tel.: +82-2-320-1627
Abstract:
Drones, which were first used in military applications, are now widely used by civilians
for various purposes such as for deliveries and as cameras. There has been a lack of research into
what drone users expect in terms of drone design and operation from a user perspective. In order
to figure out what users want from drones, it is necessary to investigate the perception and design
preferences of users with regard to drones. Surveys were conducted to collect data on preferences for
various aspects of the design and operation of drone technology. Features relevant to the design and
operation of drones were considered. We have identified the underlying factor structures of drone
design and operation: outdoor mission type, user interface, military mission type, usefulness, risk,
special mission type, and concern. The most important factors that contribute to all the dependent
variables are the user interface and usefulness. The fact that drones will be increasingly used in the
future is clear; however, the purpose of this study was to find out the areas on which to focus and
pay further attention.
Keywords: drones; design; operation; user preference; user interface; usefulness
1. Introduction
Drones, which were first used in military applications, are now widely used by
civilians for various purposes such as for deliveries and as cameras. They have endless
possibilities for scientific investigations, emergency response, traffic control, and aerial
photography [
1
]. The drone market has grown steadily and it is predicted that in the future,
they will become an indispensable product in our daily lives similar to smartphones [
2
].
However, despite these prospects, drones are not widely used in our society due to concerns
about safety [
3
,
4
]. In addition, user-controlled accidents account for a high proportion of
drone accidents [5].
Drone-piloting experience using a joystick controller has some problems. The current
experience of piloting a drone using a joystick is not intuitive, so it is not well-understood
how the drone is operated [
6
]. In addition, the experience of piloting a drone requires a
high mental workload, which can lead to accidents [
7
]. This could be a big problem in the
civilian drone market for users with poor drone-piloting skills. Therefore, it is important to
design safe and intuitive ways to interact with aerial systems [8].
Most of the control interfaces for short-range drones utilize radio controller (RC)-based
joysticks [
9
]. However, a lot of skill is required to control the drone using the RC-based
control interface [
10
]. There has been a study that proposed using speech, body position,
hand gestures, and visual marker interactions to directly send commands to a drone [
8
].
Interfaces utilizing a user’s natural behavior are more intuitive and easier to learn than
interfaces created utilizing communication through machines [
11
]. In addition, these
interfaces are known to require a low mental workload [
12
]. Therefore, utilizing a more
natural interface could solve the problems of the existing drone-piloting experience, such
as a lack of intuition, a difficult learning curve, and a high cognitive load.
There has been a lack of research into what drone users expect in terms of drone design
and operation from a user perspective. In order to figure out what users want from drones,
it is necessary to investigate the perceptions and design preferences of users with regard
Drones 2022, 6, 133. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones6050133 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/drones
