A Cognitive Task Analysis-based evaluation of Remotely Piloted Aircraft situation awareness transfer mechanisms

Over the past several decades, the military, government and commercial industries have begun to realize the potential benefits that Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) technologies stand to deliver. As a result, the demand for medium to high-altitude RPA operations, especially within the US Air Force, continues to grow. However, the assets and requisite resources to support those operations are far from unlimited and struggle to keep pace. This situation has inevitably led innovators to seek out RPA force-multiplying efficiencies to assist in bridging the resource/demand gap. One such consideration is simultaneous control of multiple aircraft by a single pilot, or Multi Aircraft Control (MAC). Past research has identified several challenges to MAC, to include dynamic and emergency task saturation, communications interruptions, and effective transfer of operational situation awareness (SA) from a losing crew to a gaining crew-called “change-over”. This (poster) paper describes the cognitive tasks, modalities, and transfer mechanisms to best achieve operational Situation Awareness (SA) within RPA operations, focusing on crew change-over. Using information from a Cognitive Task Analysis, tools, tactics and protocols to expedite and improve the change-over process will be identified and analyzed.