Science and Engineering Day is an annual event bringing science to life for the general public through over 90 engagement events held across the main Highfield and Boldrewood campuses at the University of Southampton. The event attracts some 4,000 people and sees a wide spectrum of interactive exhibits, talks, live shows and facility tours across the science and engineering spectrum.
Our exhibit, ‘How will Delivery Drones Look and Sound? Drone Virtual Reality experience’, used virtual reality (VR) headsets to give the general public an idea of what delivery drones operating on virtual highways might look and sound like in the future.
Participants (years 7 and up) were given a brief introduction into commercial drones as opposed to hobbyist drones, using the examples of Windracer’s Ultra and Skylift’s Mugin V50 shown through video and posters. They were then asked how they would feel if their home was on the flight path of a drone corridor where such platforms were operating, before putting on the VR headsets to observe the drones in action.
The ‘Bringing Research to Life Roadshow’ is the University of Southampton’s itinerant platform designed to help researchers develop effective ways of sharing their work with the public. The University had a marquee at the New Forest and Hampshire County Show over the full three days, being the first Road Show event held since 2019 due to the pandemic.
Using virtual reality (VR) headsets, our exhibit allowed visitors to the show to look at the world around you in real time whilst experiencing the sensation of drone flight paths overhead. The computer-animated drone models used are accurately reproduced from original sources using CAD drawings with the audio taken from actual flight recordings. The virtual environments try to re-create realistically some of the places people might expect to see drones flying overhead.
Participants (years 7 and up) were then given the opportunity to put on the VR headsets under the supervision of a helper and observe the drones in action flying over the show ground.
Over the three days, 453 members of the public tried the experience. Feedback was extremely positive and suggested that such an approach was very useful in getting a perception of what such futuristic systems might be like in reality.
At our exhibit ‘Where will delivery drones fly?’, a team of E-Drone researchers used our newly developed digital game to explore drone routing over Southampton with families visiting the Hands on Humanities event. Children and adults were able to play the game, ask questions about risk and energy use and discuss ideas around using drones for making deliveries.
The Solent Future Transport Forum was a great opportunity to demonstrate the virtual reality experience and digital game to transport professionals. The Future Transport Forum is attended by professionals involved with or interested in future mobility projects.
The interactive digital game was cast onto a large touchscreen table. The game allows players to select a drone route over the area with information on risk factors and energy use. Once the route is complete, a flyover video shows the chosen route.
The E-Drone project has taken actual footage shot by a drone and used it to build a virtual reality simulation of a flight, taking off from inside the Holborn Library, where our exhibit at the Bloomsbury Festival was based, breaking out through the roof and flying over University College London’s Portico building.
Using a large touch screen table, visitors could play our digital game. Players could plot a route for the delivery drone, keeping eye on their battery use and ground risk, before watching the drone fly.
Particular interest in the interactive digital game was received from several insurance companies involved with insuring aviation risk, who were keen to arrange further discussions regarding the ground risk estimation model (i.e., estimating the probability of a drone malfunction causing a fatality on the ground) that underpins the game, and also the work that has been conducted during E-Drone on estimation of air risk (i.e., risk of an in-flight collision with another aircraft). Further discussions were also organised with Transport for London, the local government authority responsible for most of London’s transport network.
