Evolution of a common controller

Precedent has shown common controllers must strike a balance between the desire for an integrated user interface design by human factors engineers and support of project-specific data requirements. A common user-interface requires the project-specific data to conform to an internal representation, but project-specific customization is impeded by the implicit rules introduced by the internal data representation. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific (SSC Pacific) developed the latest version of the Multi-robot Operator Control Unit (MOCU) to address interoperability, standardization, and customization issues by using a modular, extensible, and flexible architecture built upon a sharedworld model. MOCU version 3 provides an open and extensible operator-control interface that allows additional functionality to be seamlessly added with software modules while providing the means to fully integrate the information into a layered game-like user interface. MOCU's design allows it to completely decouple the human interface from the core management modules, while still enabling modules to render overlapping regions of the screen without interference or a priori knowledge of other display elements, thus allowing more flexibility in project-specific customization.