ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Robot. AI
Sec. Human-Robot Interaction
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frobt.2025.1580289
Human Interactions With Delivery Drones in Public Spaces: Design Recommendations From Recipient and Bystander Perspectives
Provisionally accepted
- 1Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands
- 2Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- 3Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands
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Drones will likely deliver packages in public spaces, where humans interact as recipients of the package and as bystanders passing by. Understanding the human needs and uncertainties that may arise during these interactions is crucial to ensure safety. This user-centered design study employed twelve interviews and four focus groups to identify key requirements for recipients and bystanders interacting with delivery drones in public spaces. Findings demonstrate different information needs and preferred interface modalities between recipients and bystanders across various interaction stages, from ordering a package to the drone's retraction after delivery. This paper highlights essential design features and offers concrete design recommendations based on the interaction requirements. These recommendations can inform the standardization and customization of design features for each interaction stage, enhancing safety and facilitating natural human-drone interaction. Future research should build on these recommendations and validate the design concepts through experimental user studies involving human interactions with delivery drones in public spaces.
Keywords: Human-Drone Interaction1, Robot Design2, Delivery Applications3, Interview Studies4, focus group5, Public Spaces6
Received: 20 Feb 2025; Accepted: 29 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lingam, Verstegen, Petermeijer and Martens. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shiva Nischal Lingam, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Eindhoven, 5600, Netherlands
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