UAV Operations using Virtual Environments

Abstract : In virtual environments (VE) the limited field of view, the lack of information on viewing direction and possible transmission delays may be considered as potential problems in developing and maintaining a good sense of situation awareness. Enabling unmanned air vehicle (UAV) operators to use high quality (proprioceptive) information on (changes in) viewing direction by introducing a head-slaved camera system with head-slaved display (HMD) may improve situation awareness compared to using a joystick and a fixed monitor However HMDs may degrade comfort and the dynamics of head movements. Furthermore, time delays and zoomed-in images induce a non-steady presentation of the environment and may impede adequate mapping of spatial information. This paper reports an exploratory study into the applicability of a head-slaved camera system in unmanned platform applications. To overcome the possible drawbacks of HMDs we compared an HMD with a head-slaved dome projection in a simulator experiment. To overcome the possible drawbacks of transmission delay we introduced a new method to compensate for the spatial distortions. This technique called delay-handling , preserves the correct spatial relation between the viewing direction of the camera and operator by presenting incoming images the camera viewing direction. and not in the actual viewing direction of the operator