Touching Virtual Worlds with Flying Robots

While modern XR systems can render increasingly convincing virtual worlds, enabling users to physically interact with those worlds remains a fundamental challenge. This talk presents a progression of research exploring autonomous flying robots as encounter-type haptic devices that deliver force feedback wherever and whenever interaction occurs. Beginning with the question of whether a single nano-quadcopter can produce meaningful touch sensations, I will describe how our work evolved to collaborative multi-drone systems capable of rendering stronger and more expressive haptic feedback, and ultimately to a flyable joystick that seamlessly transitions between autonomous flight and handheld interaction. Throughout the talk, I will discuss both the engineering challenges, including safety, force generation, and control, and the user studies demonstrating how these systems improve the realism and immersion of virtual experiences.