The Air Force Research Laboratory's Human Effectiveness Directorate (AFRL/HE) supports research addressing human factors associated with Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) operator control stations. Recent research, in collaboration with Rapid Imaging Software, Inc., has focused on determining the value of combining synthetic vision data with live camera video presented on a UAV control station display. Information is constructed from databases (e.g., terrain, cultural features, pre-mission plan, etc.), as well as numerous ...
An evaluation was conducted on a generic UAV operator interface simulation testbed to explore the effects of levels-of-automation (LOAs) and automation reliability on the number of simulated UAVs that could be supervised by a single operator. LOAs included Management-by-Consent (operator consent required) and Management-by-Exception (action automatic unless operator declines). Results indicated that the tasks were manageable, but performance decreased with increased number of UAVs supervised and reduced automation reliability. Performance ...