Multi-UAV Control for Tactical Reconnaissance and Close Air Support Missions : Operator Perspectives and Design Challenges

The term ‘unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)’ is a misnomer of sorts. Although the pilot is no longer onboard the platform, there remains a critical need for human involvement in order for UAVs to successfully perform missions. This is especially true for the tactical reconnaissance and close air support mission areas where tasks are often time critical, many relevant mission inputs are not digitized, target/friendly/non-combatant identification is complex and variable, mission objectives vary constantly as does the ground situation, and customers vary in training, experience, and procedures. UAV operators in these difficult, time sensitive mission areas will soon be expected to supervise multiple UAVs at the same time, requiring advances in management of mission critical information and aircraft control systems. The key to success is to identify and apply the appropriate level of human skill/attention to each mission task and to provide operators powerful and flexible automation tools so they can focus their attention at the mission execution level. This paper will detail the specific mission attributes and tasks associated with tactical reconnaissance and close air support mission areas that advocate continued human involvement, within the context of emerging multi-UAV supervisory control. Operational examples will be provided as illustrations. Based upon many years experience with real-world manned aircraft (A-10) and UAV combat operations, an operator’s vision will be presented of a highly net-centric multi-UAV control station design and associated concept of operations to maximize UAV effectiveness in these complex and dynamic mission areas. Characteristics of this vision will be described including a central management station, dynamic prioritization and tasking, distributed vehicle and sensor control, multi-path information flow, sophisticated autopilot system (supporting precision highdynamic maneuvering and other pilot moment-to-moment requirements), network integrated voice communications, design with automatic transcription and logging, and specific personnel categories involved. An incremental insertion of automation technology from system-control level to mission-management level is proposed so as to enhance, not displace, UAV operator performance. This vision will also be compared and contrasted to competing visions for multi-UAV control. Finally, this paper will identify critical human factors research issues that will need to be resolved in order to achieve this multi-UAV vision for tactical reconnaissance and close air support mission areas. These issues include human-automation interaction, task interruptions and switching, information prioritization and fusion, task-centered controls and displays, decision aiding technologies, and distributed teaming issues. Multi-UAV Ctrl for Tac Recce and CAS KN1 2 RTO-HMF-135 NATO/PFP UNCLASSIFIED NATO/PFP UNCLASSIFIED