Research will reveal the impact of drone noise for the first time

Drones are likely to become much more common on our skies in the years to come, but there is little data on the impact they can have on the communities they fly over. But now as part of a huge Europe wide project, acoustics experts from Salford are working on the problem.

Taking place earlier this year in Athens, Greece, the project research team conducted an experiment in parallel with a social acceptance survey of innovative aerial services for the first time.

Over 130 people from nearby universities and vocational education centres participated in a three-step live, outdoor experiment to gauge public perceptions of innovative aerial services, and responses to drone sounds. The results should be known later this year.

In these so-called "soundwalks", the participants first observed multiple drone flights led by the Acoustics Research Centre at the University of Salford in collaboration with the Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering (TUDelft) team. 

These tests aimed to evaluate how the ambient sound scenes were perceived in two different park settings and to find out how adding drone noise affected those impressions. Specifically, the team used a set of word-pair scales (eg. pleasant-unpleasant) to ask participants to rate their perceptions of the sounds. By doing this, they can evaluate a wide range of emotional responses alongside annoyance and loudness.

A drone operator from the Municipality of Egaleo also participated in the procedure. After the soundwalks, in stage two of the experiment, the participants answered questions about their perception of drones after they were exposed to the drone flights and sounds.

The participants were asked to state their viewpoints on the potential use of drones in city operations for different purposes (eg. sensing, logistics, emergencies) as well as how acceptable they consider their application in a more complex future where innovative aerial services are offered and have the potential to become part of daily life. The output of this work is expected to be an acceptance scale to be used in any city and address the level of citizens´ acceptance of UAM services.

Associate professor Antonio Torija Martinez, principal investigator at the University of Salford, said: “This was a pioneering experiment to gauge public perceptions of innovative aerial services, and responses to drone sounds. 

“The study was important because will allow us understanding how drone sound will be perceived, depending on where they are operating (e.g., existing ambient sound) and how they are operating (e.g., specific manoeuvre or distance to the ground).”