Effects of operator spatial ability on UAV-guided ground navigation

We simulated a military reconnaissance environment and examined the performance of ground robotics operators who were instructed to utilize streaming video from an unmanned aerial vehicle to navigate his/her ground robot to the locations of the targets. We evaluated participants´ spatial ability and examined if it affected their performance or perceived workload. Results showed that participants with higher spatial ability performed significantly better in target-mapping performance and reported less workload than those with lower spatial ability. Participants with poor sense-of-direction performed significantly worse in the target search task in the night condition compared with those with better sense-of-direction.