Workload Demands of Remotely Piloted Vehicle Supervision and Control: (1) Single Vehicle Performance

Abstract

Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. 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".2

The Role of Human Causal Factors in U.S. Army Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Accidents

“…During periods of malfimction, intense periods of high mental workload can be encountered. Wickens and Dixon (2002) studied 18 RPV pilots in a simulation environment that included auditory signals. The tasks included navigation, target detection, and monitoring system displays.…”

Operator scheduling strategies in supervisory control of multiple UAVs

“…LOAs can vary across the embedded control loops, and a general assignment of a single LOA across the three loops makes it difficult to determine how to effectively model and intervene to free specific cognitive resources, either from an automation or decision support perspective. Wickens et al [7,8] demonstrated that automating the guidance and motion control loop reduced operator workload by freeing cognitive resources for other tasks, and that some automation for the navigation and mission management control loops was helpful in reducing operator workload. However, they also did not distinguish between levels of automation for the navigation and mission management loops, thus it is not clear how the levels of automation in each loop affected the other and the overall outcome of the mission.…”

One Framework of Automation Design Based on Operator Cognitive State Assessment

“…It can quickly sort, filter, and optimize a set of multi-objective cost functions, especially effective for planning and making decisions in large problem spaces like those in command and control domains. Wickens and Dixon [7] demonstrated that autopilots fly airplanes with greater accuracy than when the aircraft is controlled manually. Evidence shows that performance improvements may be made in difficult, high workload task environments [8] or under temporally demanding task situation [9].…”