Evaluating Drone Operator Motor Skills: A Comparison Between Simulated and Real Environments

Authors

Juan Sebastián Ruiz-Medina, University of Tskukuba
Maeng Sungju, University of Tskukuba
Tu Nianzhi, University of Tskukuba
Makoto Itoh, University of Tskukuba

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

Abstract

This paper investigates the use of drone simulation software as a tool forevaluating drone operators’ motor skills in real scenarios. The experimentalscenario was a task based on the NIST Open Test Lanes concept, in whichoperators follow a designated route and take pictures of targets placed insidebuckets. An experiment was conducted using this scenario in two simulatedenvironments and a real setup, with two different drones. Ten licensed droneinstructors participated in the experiment. The results demonstrate that theperformance trends were consistent across both simulations and realenvironments, supporting the idea that simulators are reliable enough to be usedas a benchmark tool for predicting drone operators’ performance curves, makingthem useful for training planning.

Comments

Presented at the 23rd International Symposium on Aviation Psychology, May 27-30, 2025, Hosted by Oregon State University

Repository Citation

Ruiz-Medina, J. S., Sungju, M., Nianzhi, T., & Itoh, M. (2025). Evaluating Drone Operator Motor Skills: A Comparison Between Simulated and Real Environments. Proceedings of the 23rd International Symposium on Aviation Psychology, 186-181.
https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/isap_2025/32