Tactical Evaluation of Unmanned Ground Vehicle during a Mout Excersice

Abstract

Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) have been used in military operations in urban terrain (MOUT) for some time, with performance and safety advantages for reconnaissance related tasks. Reported here is a brief summary of the main research efforts conducted in cooperation with the Swedish Army Combat School concerning UGV use during reconnaissance activities. The SNOKEN II UGV was evaluated in two field exercises, indicating that it can be successfully used for several purposes. The importance of understanding the pros and cons of UGV use is emphasised in that this awareness enables the commander to decide in which situations it should be used. There is for example a trade-off between accepting limitations in pace of advance using the UGV, thereby also potentially increasing soldier safety, and the utility of quickly gathered reconnaissance information without the UGV.

Close Target Reconnaissance

“…Possibly, the sensor imagery was dominating because it was perceived as a preview, a way to anticipate the comings, although in reality it only predicted a portion of the information. Empirical results provide confirmation to what has been reported previously in a more retrospective manner by platoon leaders and SMEs (e.g., Durlach, 2007;Lif et al, 2006), that the use of video feed tolls the soldier who is utilizing it and does affect his understanding of the immediate environment, making him more vulnerable. It is possible though that more training with sensor imagery and better understanding of its limitations will reduce the amount of attention it attracts.…”

“…Based on postexperiment interviews with platoon leaders, Durlach (2007) found that the addition of tele-operated unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) lead to loss of attention of the immediate environment for the UGV operators who then needed to be supervised by others. Similarly, Lif, Jander, and Borgvall (2006) reported that utilization of a UGV provided more possibilities to gather reconnaissance but slowed the advance pace of the team due to the need of the UGV to scout the terrain and of the team to interpret these additional data. They too mentioned that UGV operators could not simultaneously perform ordinary soldier duties, such as scouting, while operating the UGV.…”

Workload in Human-Robot Interaction: A Review of Manipulations and Outcomes

“…When examining results by the task performance measures, we observe an emerging trade-off between production and other measures. In many studies, teleoperators could execute more total actions as they controlled more platforms (e.g., Crandall & Cummings, 2007;Lif et al, 2007;Squire et al, 2006). However, increasing the number of platforms also increased error rates in targeting and navigation (e.g., Galster, Knott, and Brown, 2006), and it tended to increase reaction times (e.g., Chadwick, 2006;Levinthal & Wickens, 2007).…”