Workload Demands of Remotely Piloted Vehicle Supervision and Control: (1) Single Vehicle Performance
Abstract
Eighteen licensed pilots flew a remotely piloted vehicle "RPV" simulation on three 10-leg missions. The simulation required navigating to an enemy target, monitoring for unexpected targets in a 3D image display, and monitoring on-board systems. Both of the first two tasks required zooming in to inspect 3D images of the targets. Displays to support these activities were presented on a 19 inch Screen. Each pilot flew in a baseline condition, a condition supported by redistributing some information to the auditory modality, and a condition supported by automating much of the navigational tasks. The results revealed considerable interference between the tasks components. Some aspects of this interference were relieved by auditory offloading. However other aspects were not, suggesting that heavy cognitive demands of image manipulation dominated any benefit for using separate perceptual modalities. Navigational automation also relieved some aspects of task interference. The results are interpreted in terms of their relevance to different theories of multiple task interference, and to the concept of "cognitive tunneling".
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA496813
Entities
People
- Christopher Dow Wickens
- Stephen Dixon
Organizations
- University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign