Abstract
Future concepts of operations for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) will result in control paradigms whereby a single operator, or teams of operators, control multiple vehicles. This shift in control paradigms will require novel human-automation interfaces to help operators manage new demands placed on performance, workload and situation awareness (SA) as they manage task switching and handoffs between vehicles, payloads, missions, targets, and crew. A simulation experiment was conducted to compare the effects of various airspace display formats on operator workload, performance and SA. The experiment followed structured interviews conducted with U.S. Army and Air Force UAS operators in which airspace and clearance information was identified as one of the key issues for UAS operations and handoffs. Based on these interviews, a dedicated airspace transition display was proposed to support handoffs during UAS operations. Operators were tasked with taking over an ongoing UAS mission in order to evaluate four different airspace display formats: an Internet Relay Chat room window based on current military operations; a text-based transition page embedded in the Multi-Function Display (MFD); a graphics-based transition page in the MFD; and a graphical display overlaid directly onto the operators’ current map display. Objective performance data, SA data, and subjective user ratings were collected. Results indicated improved task performance and SA, as well as lower workload ratings with the dedicated airspace transition displays compared to current baseline operations, with preference by operators given to graphical (as opposed to text-based) presentation formats.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.