System and method for controlling swarm of remote unmanned vehicles through human gestures

A method for controlling operation of an unmanned vehicle, comprising:

• providing an unmanned vehicle having a plurality of optically reflective markers thereon;
• defining at least one gesture of a body part of an operator that corresponds to an operating command for controlling motion of the unmanned vehicle;
• using an article worn by an operator, the article having optically reflective markers, to enable the operator responsible for remotely controlling operation of the unmanned vehicle to signal the gesture through movement of the article;
• optically illuminating the unmanned vehicle and the article worn by the operator;
• sensing optical reflections from the markers of the unmanned vehicle and the markers on the article;
• using a motion capture system to interpret the sensed optical reflections and to generate data representing a position of the unmanned vehicle and a motion of the article;
• and
• processing the data to interpret the gesture being given by the operator via motion of the article and to determine a position of the unmanned vehicle, and to generate a command for controlling the unmanned vehicle in accordance with the gesture;
• and
• wirelessly transmitting the command to the unmanned vehicle.

A system for remotely controlling at least one unmanned vehicle through body movements of an operator, the system comprising:

• an article worn on a body part of said operator, the article having a first plurality of optically reflective markers secured thereto;
• a second plurality of optically reflective markers secured to said unmanned vehicle;
• a motion capture system for optically tracking a position and an orientation of said article via said first plurality of optically reflective markers, and a position and orientation of said unmanned vehicle via said second plurality of optically reflective markers, and generating data representing positions of each of said optically reflective markers;
• a processing system adapted to process the data from said motion capture system and to generate commands for controlling motion of the unmanned vehicle, the processing system including:
• a gesture recognition module for interpreting portions of said data received from said motion capture system that define positions and orientations of said markers on said articles being worn by said operator, as predefined operating commands to be provided to said unmanned vehicle;
• and
• a feedback control subsystem that receives the navigation signals from the gesture recognition module and generates low-level vehicle control commands for controlling the unmanned vehicle.