A consortium of government, industry and academia is currently working to establish minimum operational performance standards for Detect and Avoid (DAA) and Control and Communications (C2) systems in order to enable broader integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System (NAS). One subset of these performance standards will need to address the DAA display requirements that support an acceptable level of pilot performance. From a pilot's perspective, the DAA task is the maintenance of self separation and collision avoidance from other aircraft, utilizing the available information and controls within the Ground Control Station (GCS), including the DAA display. The pilot-in-the-loop DAA task requires the pilot to carry out three major functions: 1) detect a potential threat, 2) determine an appropriate resolution maneuver, and 3) execute that resolution maneuver via the GCS control and navigation interface(s). The purpose of the present study was to examine two main questions with respect to DAA display considerations that could impact pilots' ability to maintain well clear from other aircraft. First, what is the effect of a minimum (or basic) information display compared to an advanced information display on pilot performance? Second, what is the effect of display location on UAS pilot performance? Two levels of information level (basic, advanced) were compared across two levels of display location (standalone, integrated), for a total of four displays. The authors propose an eight-stage pilot-DAA interaction timeline from which several pilot response time metrics can be extracted. These metrics were compared across the four display conditions. The results indicate that the advanced displays had faster overall response times compared to the basic displays, however, there were no significant differences between the standalone and integrated displays. Implications of the findings on understanding pilot performance on the DAA task, the development of DAA display performance standards, as well as the need for future research are discussed.

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Previous studies have begun exploring the possibility that “adaptable” automation, in which tasks are delegated to intelligent automation by the user, can preserve the benefits of automation while minimizing its costs. One approach to adaptable automation is the Playbook®interface, which has been used in previous research and has shown performance enhancements as compared to other automation approaches. However, additional investigations are warranted to evaluate both benefits and potential costs of adaptable automation. The present study incorporated a delegation interface into a new display and simulation system, the multiple unmanned aerial vehicle simulator (MUSIM), to allow for flexible control over three unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at three levels of delegation abstraction. Task load was manipulated by increasing the frequency of primary and secondary task events. Additionally, participants experienced an unanticipated event that was not a good fit for the higher levels of delegation abstraction. Treatment of this poor “automation fit” event, termed a “Non-Optimal Play Environment” event (NOPE event), required the use of manual control. Results showed advantages when access to the highest levels of delegation abstraction was provided and as long as operators also had the flexibility to revert to manual control. Performance was better across the two task load conditions and reaction time to respond to the NOPE event was fastest in this condition. The results extend previous findings showing benefits of flexible delegation of tasks to automation using the Playbook interface and suggest that Playbook remains robust even in the face of poor “automation-fit” events.

Summary:The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of iPod interactions on driver performance over several sessions to determine the distraction effect of iPods on driver performance, as well as to see if performance decrements declined with practice. Nineteen younger drivers (mean age = 19.4, range 18 to 22) participated in a seven-session study in the University of Calgary Driving Simulator. Drivers encountered a number of critical events such as pedestrian incursions, lead vehicle braking, and pullout vehicle events, on the roadways. These events were encountered both while driving alone and when performing iPod tasks of varying difficulty. Participants' hazard response, frequency of collisions and eye movement measures were examined to determine if there were any changes in performance related to iPod distraction and practice effects. Increases in perception response time (PRT) and frequency of collisions were found during the difficult iPod interactions. The number and duration of glances made into the vehicle increased significantly while performing the difficult iPod interactions, reducing the number of glances made to the roadway. Over the course of the sessions, performance improved significantly in all secondary task conditions, but performance decrements still remained in the difficult iPod condition compared to the baseline.

This paper explores the central role played by coordination during fire incident response. Following preliminary investigations based on other methods, the authors analyzed a corpus of 29 critical incident reports produced by one fire department's safety services. Urban firefighting is a complex domain in which members' activities need to be highly synchronized in order to reach common operational and safety goals. As the work environment challenges the capacity of firefighters to coordinate efficiently, coordination breakdowns might occur, creating safety threats as role interdependencies become difficult to manage.

Nine active unmanned aircraft system (UAS) pilots were tasked with flying a simulated UAS in civil airspace and instructed to maintain safe separation (i.e., well clear) from surrounding traffic. Pilots' task of maintaining separation (referred to here as 'Detect-and-Avoid', or DAA) was facilitated by four different traffic displays, each differing in the level of maneuver guidance they presented to the pilot. Pilots were found to spend the least amount of time implementing a maneuver when provided with an integrated form of directive guidance, but were found to subjectively prefer a maneuver guidance tool that allowed them to test self-derived maneuver options and then receive feedback as to that option's predicted safety level. The results of this study are related back to previous research and to the task of identifying the minimum information requirements for UAS pilots performing the DAA task. Limitations and future research are also discussed.

Gurion University of the Negev Chris A. Miller, Smart Information Flow TechnologiesThe continuing proliferation in the use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in both civil and military operations has presented a multitude of human factors challenges from how to bridge the gap between the demand and availability of trained operators, to how to organize and present data in meaningful ways. Underlying many of these challenges is the issue of how automation capabilities can best be utilized to assist human operators manage increasing complexity and workload. The purpose of this discussion panel is to examine current research and perspectives on human automation interaction and how it relates to the future of UAS control. The panel is composed of five well-known researchers, all experts in the area of human-automation interaction. The range of topics that the panelists will discuss includes: how automation taxonomies can be applied to UAS design; opportunities to exploit automation capabilities in multi-vehicle contexts; current examples of automation research results, particularly in the area of multiple UAS control, and how they can be applied for future UAS; and how to design automation to maximize UAS mission effectiveness.