Towards Intelligent Operator Interfaces in Support of Autonomous UVS Operations

Abstract

Experience in recent conflicts indicates the employment of Unmanned Vehicle Systems (UVS) will continue to grow in coming years. New UVS capabilities involve greater complexity of payloads and interactions within unmanned vehicle (UV) subsystems, among UVS and between UVS and other systems, including Command and Control (C2) systems. This introduces additional requirements for UV operators. In some situations UV operators easily can be faced with cognitive information overload, while increasing UVS complexity and future concepts of employment such as single-operator multiple-UV operation require increased operator attention. In order to attain the required level of operator efficiency, it is necessary to introduce higher levels of autonomy within the UVS subsystems in conjunction with the use of intelligent operator interfaces. This will allow for greater flexibility and effectiveness in supporting future mission requirements wherein UVS operator interfaces are able to reduce the work load, and allow operators to function at higher levels of abstraction. In this context, this study justifies the employment of intelligent systems to attain higher levels of autonomy for a specific family of UVS, which are the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). The proposed approach is based on various automation management strategies, combined with the use of formal languages for effectively capturing information elements flowing between the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) operator and the UAS subsystems. This paper also proposes a technical approach towards the experimentation of these UAS concepts in a simulation environment using the Coalition Battle Management Language (C-BML) as an enabling technology for the interoperation of the C2 systems with some of the UVS subsystems.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2011
Accession Number
ADA547392

Entities

People

  • Fawzi Hassaine
  • Kevin Heffner

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Adaptive Systems
  • Aircrafts
  • Autonomous Systems
  • Cognitive Systems Engineering
  • Command And Control
  • Computers
  • Employment
  • Formal Languages
  • Ground Control Stations
  • Information Exchange
  • Intelligent Systems
  • Situational Awareness
  • Target Recognition
  • Unmanned Aerial Systems
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • Unmanned Systems
  • Unmanned Vehicles

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Mathematical Modeling and Probability Theory.
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.
  • Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Autonomous Capabilities and Mission Reconnaissance.

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - Human-Robot Interaction
  • Autonomy - UAVs
  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control