The Human Machine Interface for Airborne Control of UAVs

QinetiQ are currently undertaking a four-year study for the UK Ministry of Defence examining the system requirements of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) for offensive missions. Offensive missions are particularly suitable for the application of UAV technologies and extremely demanding in terms of operator workload and required levels of autonomy. Through real-time man-in-the-loop simulation, this study is investigating the operator-UAV interaction, with emphasis placed on the requirements of variable levels of autonomy, pool behaviour characteristics, the Human Machine Interface (HMI) and datalinks for controlling multiple UAVs from a single-seat manned combat aircraft. Having captured the required level of abstraction in terms of designation and initiation of any task, this study aims to optimise the HMI cognitively and to equip the UAVs with appropriate levels of autonomy and intelligence.

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