Aircraft Track Initiation and Maintenance In a Single-Operator Simulated Surveillance System: Technical Report I.

Abstract

A semiautomatic radar surveillance system using a time-compression display was simulated. Subjects were required to detect targets entering the surveillance area (75 by 75 nautical miles), initiate automatic tracking of these targets, and reinitiate (maintain) 'lost' tracks when automatic tracking failed. Four target introduction rates (1, 2, 3, and 4/minute), three levels of clutter density (0.016, 0.032, and 0.064 pieces/square nautical mile), and two levels of practice (replications) were investigated. Results indicate that increases in target introduction rate generally degrade subject performance (e.g., track initiation time increases), clutter has little effect on performance, track initiation is sensitive to practice, improving from the first replication to the second, and track maintenance is relatively insensitive to practice. The dynamic characteristics of surveillance tasks require the development of a queuing model to describe human performance in semiautomatic surveillance systems. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 1971
Accession Number
AD0730609

Entities

People

  • Michael A. Bauer
  • Robert G. Mills

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Automatic
  • Automatic Tracking
  • Compression
  • Maintenance
  • Motor Skills
  • Nautical
  • Semiautomatic
  • Surveillance
  • Time Compression

Fields of Study

  • Engineering

Readers

  • Instructional Design and Training Evaluation.
  • Radar Systems Engineering.
  • Sensor Fusion and Tracking Systems.