Functional
Operation
The ground control station (GCS)
portion of many unmanned aerial systems (UAS) provide a control interface to
the operator in order to govern the unmanned aircraft manually, autonomously,
or remotely manage a given mission (Marshall, Barnhart, Shappee, & Most,
2016). Ground control stations come in many sizes. In the case of the RQ-11B
Raven, the ground control station was designed to be lightweight and portable
in order for ground troops to carry into battle. The simple ground control unit
and aircraft design allows troops to quickly learn how to operate and perform
the RQ-11B Raven’s primary intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR)
mission (Rudaski, 2014). The RQ-11B created by AeroVironment operates off a
handheld controller (Figure 1) and uses onboard cameras to steam a live video
feed to a remote video terminal (RVT). The handheld controller and RVT are
operated indecently by two operators who also setup and break down the Raven
and GCS. The simple structure of the ground control station originally had a
four channel analog link for line-of-sight operations, but in 2010 the RQ-11B
Raven was upgraded to include a digital datalink capability for faster
transition to the GCS from the UAV (Wasserbly, 2009).
Figure 1. RQ-11B handheld controller GCS. Reprinted
from Introduction to Unmanned Aircraft
Systems, Second Edition. D. Marshall. 2016.
Negative
Human Factors and Solutions
Many operators of today’s RQ-11Bs
are used to functional displays that can be customized to fit their needs while
completing certain tasks. During the first iterations of the RQ-11, operators
requested that configurations of the RVT screens be customizable to fit the
tastes of a given operator (McHale, 2010). Since then, the display screens on
the RVT have been made more functionally customizable so that operators can
increase efficiency. Another human factors issue with the RQ-11B GCS is the daytime
black visor hood used to view the handheld controller during sunlight
operations. In the heat of a battle, operators could suffer from channelized or
selective attention leading to errors in operation of the UAV. The key strategy
to overcoming selective attention is crew coordination of monitoring duties thereby
mitigating the load stress on any one individual (Marshal et al., 2016).
Common
Human Factors
As with many manned aircraft today,
the rise in the amount of automation in unmanned aerial systems can be a
blessing and a curse. Situational awareness and its four aspects (vigilance,
diagnosis, risk analysis, and action) can be difficult to maintain when flying
any airframe (Marshall et al., 2016). For the RQ-11, the information provided
to the operator can be useful to ground troops in a given area or to the
operators themselves before the press on to a desired location. However, while
gathering information on an area viewed by the UAV, it can be difficult to
maintain situational awareness of the operator’s immediate surrounding. For
example, a reconnaissance mission aimed at monitoring an enemy’s position ten
miles downrange could potentially lead to the operators being caught unaware of
the enemy near their own position. The same can be said of manned aircraft.
With so many tools to maintain situational awareness of the battlefield, pilots
can become overwhelmed by the amount of data and fail to see a caution or
warning light right in front of their faces. To overcome this challenge, the
wingman concept is used in manned aircraft and the RQ-11B (i.e. two operators).
References
Marshall,
D.M., Barnhart, R.K., Shappee, E., & Most, M.T. (2016). Introduction to Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Second Edition. Boca
Raton: CRC Press. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/erau/detail.action?docID=4710295
McHale,
J. (2010). Ground control stations for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are
becoming networking-hub cockpits on
the ground for U.S. unmanned forces. Retrieved from http://www.militaryaerospace.com/articles/2010/06/ground-control-stations.html
Rudaski, E. (2014). Drone Strikes. Hauppauge: Nova Science
Publishers, Inc. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/erau/detail.action?docID=3024053
Wasserbly, D. (2009). US Army’s
Raven datalinks to go digital. International
Defense Review, 42(9).
Retrieved from http://janes.ihs.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/International DefenceReview/DisplayFile/idr12401?edition=2009
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