VR-Based Control of Multi-Copter Operation

Jack T. Hughes; Garegin Mazmanyan; Mohammad Ghufran; Hossein Rastgoftar

doi:10.1109/MAES.2025.3623070

VR-Based Control of Multi-Copter Operation

Jack T. Hughes
, Garegin Mazmanyan
, Mohammad Ghufran
, Hossein Rastgoftar

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

We present a VR-based teleoperation system for multirotor flight that renders a third-person view (TPV) of the vehicle together with a live 3D reconstruction of its surroundings. The system runs on an embedded GPU (Jetson Orin NX) with ROS2/WebXR integration and streams geometry and video to a headset for closed-loop control in pre viously unmapped spaces. We implement a first-person video (FPV) baseline and perform matched trials with two pilots in unmapped indoor spaces. Quantitative metrics are reported from repeated trials with one pilot (N = 8) TPV achieved task time comparable to FPV while improving proximal obstacle awareness (minimum obstacle distance +0.20m) and reducing contacts. These results indicate that TPV can preserve control quality while exposing hazards less visible in FPV, supporting safer teleoperation in unknown environments.

Original language	English (US)
Journal	IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/MAES.2025.3623070
State	Accepted/In press - 2025
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Human spatial awareness enhancement
drone 3D reconstruction
human robot interaction
livestreaming
real-time scanning

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Aerospace Engineering
Space and Planetary Science
Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Access to Document

10.1109/MAES.2025.3623070

Cite this

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title = "VR-Based Control of Multi-Copter Operation",

abstract = "We present a VR-based teleoperation system for multirotor flight that renders a third-person view (TPV) of the vehicle together with a live 3D reconstruction of its surroundings. The system runs on an embedded GPU (Jetson Orin NX) with ROS2/WebXR integration and streams geometry and video to a headset for closed-loop control in pre viously unmapped spaces. We implement a first-person video (FPV) baseline and perform matched trials with two pilots in unmapped indoor spaces. Quantitative metrics are reported from repeated trials with one pilot (N = 8) TPV achieved task time comparable to FPV while improving proximal obstacle awareness (minimum obstacle distance +0.20m) and reducing contacts. These results indicate that TPV can preserve control quality while exposing hazards less visible in FPV, supporting safer teleoperation in unknown environments.",

keywords = "Human spatial awareness enhancement, drone 3D reconstruction, human robot interaction, livestreaming, real-time scanning",

author = "Hughes, \{Jack T.\} and Garegin Mazmanyan and Mohammad Ghufran and Hossein Rastgoftar",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 1986-2012 IEEE.",

year = "2025",

doi = "10.1109/MAES.2025.3623070",

language = "English (US)",

journal = "IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine",

issn = "0885-8985",

publisher = "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.",

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T1 - VR-Based Control of Multi-Copter Operation

AU - Hughes, Jack T.

AU - Mazmanyan, Garegin

AU - Ghufran, Mohammad

AU - Rastgoftar, Hossein

PY - 2025

Y1 - 2025

N2 - We present a VR-based teleoperation system for multirotor flight that renders a third-person view (TPV) of the vehicle together with a live 3D reconstruction of its surroundings. The system runs on an embedded GPU (Jetson Orin NX) with ROS2/WebXR integration and streams geometry and video to a headset for closed-loop control in pre viously unmapped spaces. We implement a first-person video (FPV) baseline and perform matched trials with two pilots in unmapped indoor spaces. Quantitative metrics are reported from repeated trials with one pilot (N = 8) TPV achieved task time comparable to FPV while improving proximal obstacle awareness (minimum obstacle distance +0.20m) and reducing contacts. These results indicate that TPV can preserve control quality while exposing hazards less visible in FPV, supporting safer teleoperation in unknown environments.

AB - We present a VR-based teleoperation system for multirotor flight that renders a third-person view (TPV) of the vehicle together with a live 3D reconstruction of its surroundings. The system runs on an embedded GPU (Jetson Orin NX) with ROS2/WebXR integration and streams geometry and video to a headset for closed-loop control in pre viously unmapped spaces. We implement a first-person video (FPV) baseline and perform matched trials with two pilots in unmapped indoor spaces. Quantitative metrics are reported from repeated trials with one pilot (N = 8) TPV achieved task time comparable to FPV while improving proximal obstacle awareness (minimum obstacle distance +0.20m) and reducing contacts. These results indicate that TPV can preserve control quality while exposing hazards less visible in FPV, supporting safer teleoperation in unknown environments.

KW - Human spatial awareness enhancement

KW - drone 3D reconstruction

KW - human robot interaction

KW - livestreaming

KW - real-time scanning

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JO - IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine

JF - IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine

ER -

VR-Based Control of Multi-Copter Operation

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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