Japan builds glove that steers drones remotely with hand gestures

Researchers at the University of Tokyo’s Dragon Lab have developed a novel teleoperation system that enables precise control of omnidirectional aerial drones using a data glove and hand gestures. This six degrees of freedom (6-DoF) system tracks the operator’s shoulder and hand movements, including finger flexion, to intuitively steer drones in complex environments. Unlike traditional joystick controls, this glove-based interface offers four distinct control modes—Spherical, Cartesian, Operation, and Locking—each designed for specific navigation or manipulation tasks. Operators switch modes seamlessly through recognized hand gestures, with visual cues displayed to reduce cognitive load and improve situational awareness. The system was validated through real-world tests involving obstacle avoidance, corridor navigation, and a valve-turning task, demonstrating smooth drone trajectory tracking with a latency of 0.3 to 0.5 seconds suitable for low-speed operations. Spherical Mode, which aligns drone movement with the operator’s arm direction, was found to be the most intuitive, though judging radial