USMC Vertical Takeoff and Landing Aircraft: Human-Machine Teaming for Controlling Unmanned Aerial Systems

Abstract

The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is investing in aviation technologies through its Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft program that will enhance mission superiority and warfare dominance against both conventional and asymmetric threats. One of the USMC program initiatives is to launch unmanned aerial systems (UAS) from future human-piloted VTOL aircraft for collaborative hybrid (manned and unmanned) missions. This hybrid VTOL-UAS capability will support USMC intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), electronic warfare (EW), communications relay, and kinetic strike air to ground missions. This capstone project studied the complex human-machine interactions involved in the future hybrid VTOL-UAS capability through model-based systems engineering analysis, coactive design interdependence analysis, and modeling and simulation experimentation. The capstone focused on a strike coordination and reconnaissance (SCAR) mission involving a manned VTOL platform, a VTOL-launched UAS, and a ground control station (GCS). The project produced system requirements, a system architecture, a conceptual design, and insights into the human-machine teaming aspects of this future VTOL capability

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2022
Accession Number
AD1184840

Entities

People

  • Andre K. Gatlin
  • Bryan H. Harrison
  • Calvin W. Taylor
  • David A. Ray
  • Drake A. Scott

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Autonomy
  • Cyber
  • Engineered Resilient Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Autonomous Systems
  • Cognitive Systems Engineering
  • Computers
  • Control Systems
  • Ground Control Stations
  • Human Systems Integration
  • Human-Machine Interaction
  • Human-Machine Systems
  • Human-Robot Interaction
  • Military Science
  • Model Based Systems Engineering
  • Reconnaissance
  • Systems Engineering
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Unmanned Aerial Systems
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • Unmanned Systems

Readers

  • Irregular Warfare and Special Operations Cyberspace Operations against Adversarial Threats.
  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - Human-Robot Interaction
  • Autonomy - UAVs
  • Microelectronics