The Influence of Contextual Non-Auditory Factors on Drone Sound Perception

New forms of air transport are expected to arrive in the next decade: development of unmanned multi-rotor equipped drones, are expected to be used for not only observation purposes, but for postal package delivery as well. The impact of close-flying drones near communities is still not fully understood. One of the main concerns for public acceptability is noise impact as it may negatively affect human health and well-being. Prior research shows that non-acoustical factors play an important role in the perception of noise. A laboratory study was conducted to evaluate different subjective factors to examine their influence on noise annoyance: education on useful applications of drones (positive framing), rural versus urban environments, different visually modelled sizes of drones, and the visual noticeability of drones. Participants of the study evaluated scripted drone events using a Virtual Reality headset with a sound simulation system. Results show that drones flying in a rural environment were perceived as significantly louder, more annoying, and more noticeable compared to an urban setting. Also, noticeability of a drone significantly predicted annoyance and loudness. However, the size of the drone influenced noticeability, but not annoyance. Unexpectedly, the positive framing did not have a measurable influence in this study.