Easy-to-Use UAV Ground Station Software for Low-Altitude Civil Operations

We propose to design and develop easy-to-use Ground Control Station (GCS) software for low-altitude civil Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) operations. The GCS software will allow a UAV user to 1) specify the mission in the user's language, rather than the traditional jargon of mission and flight plan-ning, and 2) execute the mission without relying on additional personnel who have specialized piloting skills. The user specifies the mission through a combination of natural-language instructions and graphi-cal interfaces, and the GCS software translates the user instructions into a mission plan that is executed autonomously. This innovation will enable a paradigm shift in UAV operations by freeing end users from their dependency on expert operators to fulfill the mission. The proposed Phase I work focuses on requirements analysis and the design and demonstration of a prototype GCS User Interface. We will also develop a plan for a Phase II effort to further develop and demonstrate the GCS software with an existing UAV platform for a specific application. This research directly addresses the NASA Earth Science Enterprise requirement for Automation and Planning technologies that "allow either spacecraft or ground systems to robustly perform complex tasks given high-level goals with minimal human direction."