Human Factors Issues When Operating Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicles and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

Abstract

There has been a great deal of human factors research on unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) in large due to a high number of operator related mishaps. However, there is very little research examining the unique human factors problems associated with unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs). The lack of research is surprising as there are frequent anecdotal accounts ROV entanglement, collisions, and failures. In addition, militaries are now using UUVs for search and rescue and mine countermeasure (MCM) operations and in the future, UUVs will take on critical roles in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and even time critical strike operations. In this paper, it is argued that the underwater environment presents unique challenges to operating UUVs that are different from the challenges of UGV and UAV systems. Several common human factors problems are discussed when using UUVs, including the loss of sensory cues and spatial awareness, the control of the remote vehicle, problems with situation awareness and workload, problems with trust in automation, and challenges with human robot communication. In each case, these issues are discussed with respect to underwater operations.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2011
Accession Number
ADA555588

Entities

People

  • Geoffrey Ho
  • Nada J. Pavlovic
  • Rifaat Abdalla
  • Robert Arrabito

Organizations

  • Defence Research and Development Canada

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Antisubmarine Warfare
  • Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
  • Cognitive Systems Engineering
  • Control Systems
  • Detection
  • Human Factors Engineering
  • Military Organizations
  • National Security
  • Oceanography
  • Target Recognition
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • Unmanned Ground Vehicles
  • Unmanned Maritime Systems
  • Unmanned Systems
  • Unmanned Underwater Vehicles
  • Unmanned Vehicles

Readers

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

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • AI & ML - Autonomous Systems
  • AI & ML - DoD AI Strategy
  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - Human-Robot Interaction
  • Autonomy - UAVs