Evaluation of a VR-based Drone Flight Path Design Tool

Abstract

Conventional 2D interfaces for drone flight planning often lack 3D spatial awareness, causing on-site trial-and-error in complex environments. This study proposes a VR-based flight path authoring system for intuitive 3D spatial design and pre-flight simulation. We conducted an evaluation with ten professional drone operators. The results demonstrated that while VR significantly improves spatial perception and composition verification, practical adoption requires a hybrid workflow integrating VR simulation with existing 2D planning tools.