Assessment of alternative manual control methods for small unmanned aerial vehicles

This paper is a summary of experiments to access alternative methods to control a small (<25 kg)1 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in manual mode. While it is true that the majority of the UAV airborne activities will be in autonomous mode (i.e. using an autopilot) this may not always be the case during takeoffs and landings, or if there is a failure of the autopilot. The requirement for a manual control mode for all flight stages remains in proposed UAV regulations currently being defined both in Canada and the U.S. The question then becomes “If we have to take manual control of the UAV, what is the best method?” The research summarized in this paper is an attempt this question.