Investigation of visual cueing aids for UAV targeting for real-time waypoint re-allocation

Abstract

An experimental study was performed to determine the effects of two visual cueing aids for a real-time waypoint navigation system. The applications of the cueing aids would be in enhancing operator performance during real-time operation of an Unmanned Autonomous Vehicle (UAV). Subjects used a graphical user interface to perform a simulated surveillance mission. Two cueing aids were used during the missions. The cueing aids were a synthetic video camera image facing either forward or to the side, and the presence or absence of a camera ground marker that depicted the camera field of view on a map display. On average, operators using a side camera view completed the simulated surveillance mission in less time than when they used a forward camera view. With the absence of the camera ground marker, the side view yielded a 25% lower performance time, and with the presence of the marker, the side view yielded a 36% reduction in performance time. However, subjects preferred a forward camera view for initially finding the target. Also, a camera ground marker was found to have beneficial effects on reducing mission time. For cases with a forward camera view, the presence of a ground marker reduced performance time by 12%, and for cases with a side camera view, the ground marker reduction was 26%.