A Psychoacoustic Approach to Building Knowledge about Human Response to Noise of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

We are on the cusp of a revolution in the aviation sector, driven by the significant progress in electric power and battery technologies, and autonomous systems. Several industry leaders and governmental agencies are currently investigating the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), or "drones" as commonly known, for an ever-growing number of applications-from blue light services to parcel delivery and urban mobility. Undoubtedly, the operation of UAVs will lead to noise exposure, which has the potential to become a significant public health issue. This paper first describes the main acoustic and operational characteristics of UAVs, as an unconventional noise source compared to conventional civil aircraft. Gaps in the literature and the regulations on the noise metrics and acceptable noise levels are identified and discussed. The state-of-the-art evidence on human response to aircraft and other environmental noise sources is reviewed and its application for UAVs discussed. A methodological framework is proposed for building psychoacoustic knowledge, to inform systems and operations development to limit the noise impact on communities.

Keywords: community noise impact; drone noise; health effects of noise.

Figure 1

Frequency spectra of two conventional aircraft (Airbus A320 and Boeing 737-8MAX) and two multi-copter Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (DJI M200 and Yuneec Typhoon [9]). Frequency spectra normalised to 65 dB(A).

Figure 2

Spectrogram of the DJI M200 (a) and Yuneec Typhoon (b) UAVs flying over at ~50 m (~150 ft) altitude above the microphone [9].

Figure 3

Spectrogram of the DJI M200 (a) and Yuneec Typhoon (b) UAVs hovering at ~1.2 m (~4 ft) altitude above the microphone [9].