This thesis details the design and functionality of BitDrones, a programmable matter interface (PMI) composed of micro cuboid drones. Each self-levitating BitDrone represented a tangible voxel and possessed four degrees of freedom to position itself in three dimensions and control its orientation about the z-axis. A single BitDrone consisted of a custom designed quadcopter suspended inside a carbon fiber wireframe cube with onboard RGB LEDs for illumination. As a swarm, these drones formed a human-computer interface that could be physically manipulated via manual user input as a Real Reality Interface (RRI). RRIs render interactive digital experiences via the manipulation of physical matter but faced several functional limitations until now. Historically, RRI elements were not self-levitating and could only create structurally stable models, or such elements had self-levitating capabilities but were not tangible and could only create sparse three-dimensional models. The spatial independence, tangibility and self-motility of each BitDrone voxel granted more versatility than previous RRIs, and this versatility enabled BitDrones to meet the functional criteria of a PMI as defined in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) literature. This work presents the evolving design of the BitDrones, the key components of the computational architecture that governed the system, as well as the tangible interactions, tools and controllers designed to use the BitDrones display. Several academic explorations over the development timeline are also presented which were completed as the BitDrones system matured. ; M.A.Sc.


    Access

    Download


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    BitDrones: Design of a Tangible Drone Swarm as a Programmable Matter Interface



    Publication date :

    2019-09-16


    Type of media :

    Theses


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



    Classification :

    DDC:    629




    FireFly - Autonomous Drone Swarm

    Nemirovsky, Meir / Yavnai, Arik / Alfandari, Liran et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2019


    CABLE-CONNECTED DRONE SWARM

    NOHMI MOTOHIKO / SEKINO YUMIKO | European Patent Office | 2018

    Free access

    INTERFACE TANGIBLE POUR ENVIRONNEMENT VIRTUEL

    YVAIN PAUL / CHABLAT DAMIEN / GUILLAUME FRANÇOIS | European Patent Office | 2016

    Free access

    Drone Swarm "Agile Suppression" Tactics

    Feng, Yuanbo / Wang, Bingqie / Li, Zheng et al. | VDE-Verlag | 2022


    Personality sharing among drone swarm

    ERICKSON THOMAS D / FLEMING KALA K / PICKOVER CLIFFORD A et al. | European Patent Office | 2020

    Free access