Drone Flight Controls | AutonomyAI

AutonomyAI is focused on bringing latest generation autonomous flight control to drone flight. As a cofounder at AutonomyAI with over 70 hours of logged flight time, I am leading product design and brand for the company.

Much of the initial flight path will be controlled by voice, which is powered by a natural language processor such as ChatGPT's api. Manual input joystick control will come into play once the drone has reached its initial destination and is ready for the survey role. The pilot will be able to set exact waypoints during flight to later reuse as a future flight plan for an autonomous flight. We would be using teach and repeat robot mechanics to enable the drone to perform future inspections and surveys fully independent of a human pilot.

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The many hours spent flying a Cessna 172SP as a student pilot have taught me that there are special considerations to make when designing UI for flight. The main focus is on presenting vital flight data in a clear and concise manner. For example, in the mockup above, you will always want your basic flight instruments to be legible, which meant using an opaque background instead of transparent padding. The less important controls can use the transparent background to prevent distraction from the primary flight instruments. The flight data must also be visible despite direct sunlight or other weather patterns, which means that the colors used must be stronger as well.

This was an exciting new chapter in my personal UI design experience!