Tactile Interfaces for Improved Situation Awareness During Remote Piloting

摘要

Remote piloted aircraft and other vehicles often encounter significant mishapsrnresulting from operator loss of situation awareness. In fact, uninhabited aerial vehiclesrn(UAV’s) have sustained, to date, a much higher rate of mishaps per flight hour than thatrnfor inhabited aircraft. The Tactile Situation Awareness System (TSAS) is a data displayrndevice that exploits the sense of touch to provide information to the operator of arndynamic system such as an aircraft or UAV. The tactile sense can provide the operatorrnwith three-dimensional information in an intuitive fashion, freeing up visual cognitivernresources for precision tasks such as identifying targets. Using both simulation and smallrnUAV’s, various TSAS implementations have been tested and evaluated. The simplestrnprovides azimuth and bank angle, while a more complex system provides pitch, roll andrnheading information. Initial results suggest that situation awareness can be enhancedrnusing a tactile interface, especially when operating under line-of-sight control or whenrnonboard camera views are hazy or otherwise ambiguous. A refined tactile interface