Ergonomic Impact of Multi-rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Noise in Warehouse Environments

Small multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are poised to revolutionize commercial and logistics sectors through their versatility, maneuverability, and rapidly increasing sophistication and decreasing costs. However, these robotic systems also produce a substantial and overpowering level of acoustic noise that can potentially distract or harm humans who are working in close proximity to these UAVs. The aim of this study is to investigate the acoustic signature of quadcopter UAVs under various operating conditions, and its impact on human communication and psychological well-being. A unique design of experiments is developed allowing efficient usage of space and reducing the number of sessions required to complete the experiment. The human study has been conducted with popular UAV platforms in a workshop environment. Participants completed various listening tasks and their scores were compared with the noise signature of the UAV to identify operating factors with significant impact on human hearing and perceived annoyance.