Operator Interface for Flexible Control of Automated Sensor Functions

ABSTRACT: Advances in automated sensor technologies offer opportunities for enhancing mission performance with individual and teams of Unmanned Air Vehicles, reducing operator workload, advancing multi-vehicle cooperation capabilities, and enhancing situation awareness across the intelligence enterprise. This research will develop operator interfaces for managing and supervising a collection of sensor automation capabilities within dynamic mission contexts. The goal is to enable operators to work collaboratively with the automation technology by allowing users to delegate tasks at various levels of automation, providing visibility into the automation"s reasoning processes, and the allowing the operator to monitor and direct the automation"s"attention"and priorities in real time. We will employ cognitive task analyses to understand the cognitive demands of sensor operators and intelligence analysts, and to understand how automated sensor capabilities can support their performance. In parallel, we will investigate sensor automation technologies to characterize their functionality, competence, and performance vulnerabilities. Operator interfaces will be developed based on a synthesis of the cognitive interview and technology assessment results, in accordance with Joint Cognitive System and Ecological Interface Design principles. These concepts will be vetted with the operational community at the end of Phase I, and then fully-developed in Phase II. BENEFIT: Solutions developed under this effort will have direct application to sensor operators and intelligence analysts, enabling fewer operators to manage larger numbers of vehicles. These solutions could also support the rapidly growing commercial UAV market, making more advanced capabilities available to non-expert users, and offering new and innovative capabilities to commercial UAV developers. Finally, the results of this research can guide the development of new sensor automation technologies that will have high payoff to the military and commercial communities.