Human Automation Integration for Supervisory Control of UAVs
Abstract
With the increasing use of uninhabited military vehicles in air, land, naval (surface and underwater) roles, we need to know more about factors affecting operator "engagement" -- cognitive/conative/behavioural task involvement -- with systems exploiting virtual media technology, in particular for reach-back, remote supervision of operations involving use of lethal force. UK experience in operating Predator has led to concerns about the operator needing emotional connectivity to "feel the granularity of the battle-space", about the "morality of altitude", and the potential for the "playground bully" to become the mode of control. Research has demonstrated the difficulty of providing sustained levels of cognitive engagement for operators at remote control stations providing supervisory targeting veto. It may be possible to mitigate these risks and to augment human involvement and engagement strategies through operator selection, training and system design. Consideration is needed of the relevance of mission and decision enabling technologies for augmenting engagement. These enabling technologies include advanced human-computer interfaces, virtual media, multi-modal immersive synthetic environments, task and user monitoring and modelling, collaborative technologies and communication techniques such as semantic information/knowledge web approaches to decision effectiveness.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA473313
Entities
People
- Robert M. Taylor
Organizations
- Defence Science and Technology Laboratory