Human Factors Concerning Unmanned Aircraft Systems in Future Operations

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) play increasingly important roles in many modern militaries. The proven success of UAS during operations in Afghanistan and Iraq has created a demand for UAS with varying functionalities and capabilities. UAS are currently performing tasks and playing roles of manned systems in many mission areas. Although UAS are limited in meeting all the required parameters when compared to the manned systems, their low risk, low cost attributes and critical mission capabilities often make them preferable. However, the extent to which UAS can continue defining tomorrow’s military missions is not predictable. There is some skepticism and hesitation about operating UAS with minimal human oversight and how it influences the operational effectiveness when the limitations of autonomy or constant control needs are accounted for. Therefore, it becomes crucially important to find out and apply the best match between systems and missions considering the type of the mission and the capabilities of UAS. The emerging challenge is to identify the place of UAS in operational structures and versatile missions, and possibly provide an integrative solution where both manned and unmanned systems collaborate in meeting given requirements in the future of warfare. The aim of this paper is to compare cognitive capabilities of manned systems and UAS, and evaluate them in the context of anticipated future operating environments. The evaluation will focus on the efficiency of systems on the cognitive domain of information environments and their impact on specific missions. The research is expected to contribute to a more informed structural transformation of modern militaries.     

Current Status and Future Perspectives for Unmanned Aircraft System Operations in the US

An aircraft (manned aircraft) may enter safely and legally into the US National Airspace System if and only if it has an airworthiness certificate complying with Federal Aviation Administration requirements. Although corresponding requirements, procedures and regulations for unmanned aircraft are in early development stages, they are expected to be similar to those set for manned aviation. This paper presents a brief overview of current airworthiness certification procedures and requirements for manned aviation, followed by a survey of the current status of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) regulations in the US but also internationally. Future perspectives of UAS regulation are discussed along with a proposed UAS classification for certification purposes, presentation of a possible certification roadmap, as well as regulatory paths for ultra-light UAS. Unmanned Aircraft Systems have seen unprecedented levels of growth within the US and Worldwide. This invited contribution reviews their current operational status within the US aiming also at predicting their future potential.     

Effect of time pressure and target uncertainty on human operator performance and workload for autonomous unmanned aerial system

Autonomous unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are being utilized at an increasing rate for a number of military applications. The role of a human operator differs from that of a pilot in a manned aircraft, and this new role creates a need for a shift in interface and task design in order to take advantage of the full potential of these systems. This study examined the effects of time pressure and target uncertainty on autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle operator task performance and workload. A 2 × 2 within subjects experiment design was conducted using Multi-Modal Immersive Intelligent Interface for Remote Operation (MIIIRO) software. The primary task was image identification, and secondary tasks consisted of responding to events encountered in typical UAS operations. Time pressure was found to produce a significant difference in subjective workload ratings as well as secondary task performance scores, while target uncertainty was found to produce a significant difference in the primary task performance scores. Interaction effects were also found for primary tasks and two of the secondary tasks. This study has contributed to the knowledge of UAS operation, and the factors which may influence performance and workload within the UAS operator. Performance and workload effects were shown to be elicited by time pressure. Relevance to industry: The research findings from this study will help the UAS community in designing human computer interface and enable appropriate business decisions for staffing and training, to improve system performance and reduce the workload.     

Establishing information requirements for supervisory controllers in a flexible manufacturing system using GTA

In this article we consider the technological change that has occurred in complex manufacturing systems within the past two decades and the implications it has had on the role of human operators in manufacturing systems control. Our examination ranges from the traditional production line manned by skilled machinists to flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) under supervisory control. On the basis of this study, we raise the question as to whether new advanced manufacturing technology interfaces are supportive of human operators in their responsibilities to manufacturing systems. We address this problem by analyzing supervisory controller information requirements for intervening in complex process control tasks as part of FMS operation. This analysis was conducted using a cognitive engineering research methodology, which has not previously been applied, in the domain of manufacturing. The method of GTA was applied to supervisory control of an FMS and produced detailed information requirements, which facilitated the formulation of general design guidelines for FMS interface design. The guidelines are aimed at supporting human operator process strategy development and decision making. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Guidelines for the Integration of Autonomous UAS into the Global ATM

The growing social and economic interest in new unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) applications demands that UASs operate beyond the segregated airspace they are currently able to fly. However, UAS operations in non-segregated airspace should be regulated by aeronautical authorities before UASs can share airspace with manned aircraft. It has been a challenge for regulatory authorities to define these regulations because they do not understand the topic well. In addition, there is no consensus in the academic community regarding UAS concepts, such as taxonomy and features. This study proposes guidelines that could support UAS regulations for the future integration of autonomous UASs into the Global Air Traffic Management System (GATM). These guidelines are based on three viewpoints: the aircraft, the piloting autonomous system (PAS) and the integration of autonomous UASs into non-segregated airspace. We recommend that the UAS concept should be based on genuine aeronautical precepts, which would be directly applied, without terminology or conceptual adaptations, for the integration of these aircraft into airspace according to the GATM paradigm.     

Artificial Situation Awareness for Increased Autonomy of Unmanned Aerial Systems in the Terminal Area

Situation awareness is the human function of perceiving, comprehending and projecting the state of the environment which is of critical importance to the safe operation of aircraft. A highly autonomous Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) must replicate this behaviour in order to maintain an acceptable level of safety verses a manned vehicle. Nowhere in the flight is situation awareness more critical than during operation in the terminal area. Of primary concern during this stage of flight is the awareness of other traffic heading for the same airfield. This paper presents of a novel method of spatial projection of traffic vehicles encountered by an autonomous UAS in the terminal stage of flight. This projection method relies on a cooperative means of traffic perception, such as Automated Dependant Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B) and assumes there is a predefined route which vehicles follow through the terminal region. Whilst this is the case at the majority of airfield, traffic vehicles will not follow this path perfectly. This uncertainty in path following accuracy is captured by utilising a curvilinear reference frame and dealing with discrete transitions (such as the initiation of a turn) separately. It is shown that whilst this technique increases the computational complexity of the problem it can offer significant performance benefit.     

The Design of Human–Machine Interface for Accident Support in Nuclear Power Plants

As feedback from Three Mile Island No. 2, a large amount of human–machine interface (HMI) design has been proposed to support operators during accidents by presenting information on plant status, some of which is implemented in commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs). However, it has not yet been discussed what role HMI should play under conditions where operators must take action as instructed under emergency operating procedure. Regarding this principal issue, an HMI design is proposed together with specific screen images. The advantage of this design is based on the involvement of an ex-operator in NPP in this paper. The participation of users in the design of HMI has been rare. Accordingly the proposed HMI is comprehensive for average operators and is expected to be acceptable for future implementation in commercial NPPs. The effectiveness of the proposed HMI has been examined in a small experiment.     

Detection of aircraft below the horizon for vision‐based detect and avoid in unmanned aircraft systems

Vision‐based aircraft detection technology may provide a credible sensing option for automated detect and avoid in small‐to‐medium size fixed‐wing unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Reliable vision‐based aircraft detection has previously been demonstrated in sky‐region sensing environments. This paper describes a novel vision‐based system for detecting aircraft below the horizon in the presence of ground clutter. We examine the performance of our system on a data set of 63 near collision encounters we collected between a camera‐equipped manned aircraft and a below‐horizon target. In these 63 encounters, our system successfully detects all aircraft, at an average detection range of 1890 m (with a standard error of 43 m and no false alarms in 1.1 h). Furthermore, our system does not require access to inertial sensor data (which significantly reduces system cost) and operates at over 12 frames per second.     

An object-oriented model for FMS control

The flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is a distributed network of heterogeneous programmable manufacturing machinery, such as assembly lines and numerically controlled machines. Despite these interconnected, programmable hardware elements, the success of building a truly flexible manufacturing system has been limited so far, owing to the lack of flexibility in its control software layer. In integrating heterogeneous machinery, many existing FMS control software systems depend structurally on specific machinery and job-scheduling strategies, and thus it is difficult to incorporate new developments in FMS organization and operational requirements. In searching for an open architecture for the FMS control software system, this paper presents an object-oriented FMS data model. Among others, it represents each physical cluster of related machinery (called a flexible manufacturing cell) as an object. To facilitate the integration of heterogeneous physical cells, such cell objects share a common protocol of interacting with the main control process through inheritance from the abstract cell class. Other related physical and abstract entities in FMS are also modelled as objects, with their similarity and difference captured in inheritance hierarchies. To verify the proposed approach experimentally, a prototype FMS control software system named FREE (FMS Runtime Executive Environment) has been implemented on top of a commercial object-oriented database system.     

YH—MCS可重构容错多机EMS单元控制系统的设计和实现

随着ＦＭＳ（柔性制造系统）制造单元的日益复杂，ＦＭＳ单元控制系统也从单机系统发展成多机系统。一多机系统具有更强的数据处理能力，更大的灵活性和更高的容错能力。本文介绍一个基于多机的容错ＦＭＳ单元控制系统ＹＨ—ＭＣＳ，详细讨论了它的体系结构，容错和故障定位的特点以及实现技术，并总结了基于多机的单元控制系统的优点。     

Modeling and control of workstation level information flow in FMS using modified Petri nets

A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) has a traditional structure of three levels: cell, workstation, and equipment. The workstation level plays an important role in the overall performance of the FMS. This paper focuses on modeling and control of the FMS workstation level information flow. In order to have a unified workstation level system structure, front-end interfaces are introduced as a standard communication medium between the workstation level and the equipment level. A detailed information flow analysis is then carried out on the workstation level. For modeling purposes, a modified Petri net is proposed with its increased modeling capability over an ordinary Petri net. It associates data structures with places and programs with transitions. Finally, the modified Petri net is used to model and control the FMS workstation level information flow. The designed control system has been implemented in a real manufacturing factory with satisfactory performance.     

A heuristic based on multi-stage programming approach for machine-loading problem in a flexible manufacturing system

Manufacturing industries are rapidly changing from economies of scale to economies of scope, characterized by short product life cycles and increased product varieties. This implies a need to improve the efficiency of job shops while still maintaining their flexibility. These objectives are achieved by Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). The basic aim of FMS is to bring together the productivity of flow lines and the flexibility of job shops. This duality of objectives makes the management of an FMS complex. In this article, the loading problem in random type FMS, which is viewed as selecting a subset of jobs from the job pool and allocating them among available machines, is considered. A heuristic based on multi-stage programming approach is proposed to solve this problem. The objective considered is to minimize the system unbalance while satisfying the technological constraints such as availability of machining time and tool slots. The performance of the proposed heuristic is tested on 10 sample problems available in FMS literature and compared with existing solution methods. It has been found that the proposed heuristic gives good results.     

An Iterative Synthesis Approach to Petri Net-Based Deadlock Prevention Policy for Flexible Manufacturing Systems

This paper proposes an iterative synthesis approach to Petri net (PN)-based deadlock prevention policy for flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). Given the PN model (PNM) of an FMS prone to deadlock, the goal is to synthesize a live controlled PNM. Its use for FMS control guarantees its deadlock-free operation and high performance in terms of resource utilization and system throughput. The proposed method is an iterative approach. At each iteration, a first-met bad marking is singled out from the reachability graph of a given PNM. The objective is to prevent this marking from being reached via a place invariant of the PN. A well-established invariant-based control method is used to derive a control place. This process is carried out until the net model becomes live. The proposed method is generally applicable, easy to use, effective, and straightforward although its off-line computation is of exponential complexity. Two FMS are used to show its effectiveness and applicability     

Thin Client技术组态软件HMI的实现

计算机和通信技术的发展推动着企业信息化管理的进步,组态软件已逐渐成为企业信息化的重要环节。组态软件采用瘦客户技术,逐渐从传统的C/S结构转换为B/S结构,其人机接口也需要改进来适应这一变化。文章尝试采用可伸缩向量图形来改进人机界面,并对其实现技术进行了详细论述。实践证明该方案是可行的,既减少了传输数据,又增强了网络图形系统的交互性。     

Cooperation Between UAS and Wireless Sensor Networks for Efficient Data Collection in Large Environments

This paper describes a method for collection of data from Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) deployed in large environments using Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). Unlike existing approaches, in which the WSN and the UAS act as independent units, the main novelty of the proposed method is that UAS and WSN cooperate to increase the performance of the mission. The proposed method presents two main cooperative behaviors: (1) the results of the WSN operation are used to update the UAS flight plan and; (2) the UAS trajectory is considered in the operation of the WSN in order to improve the data collection performance. The proposed method outperforms non-cooperative UAS-based collection approaches and traditional ground multi-hop collection schemes. The method has been experimented in the airfield of Bellavista in Seville (Spain) in March 2011.     

基于多Agent的FMS建模仿真方法研究

对FMS进行层次分解,将功能独立、具有自主决策能力的设备作为研究FM：5的主体,并利用FSA描述主体的状态及演化,从而建立主体的行为模型。在此基础上,主体实现了符合HLA／RTI规范的网络接口,从而构建FMS的Agent模型,并使模型具有互操作性和可重用性,从而具备协同求解的能力。最后提出了基于多Agent的FMS仿真的基本框架,以便能快速建     

基于ARINC429和TCP/IP的FMS仿真通信平台设计与实现

针对目前飞行管理系统(FMS)仿真通信通用性和重构性差的问题,研究了采用ARINCA29总线结合TCP/IP协议构建FMS仿真通信平台的方法,通过定义FMS仿真概念模型并设计数据结构、数据交互函数和平台控制界面,给出了一种满足FMS仿真要求的通信平台的实现方法,最后对通信平台进行性能测试,验证了平台具备可靠性和实时性....     

基于一阶混杂Petri网的柔性制造系统粗糙控制

研究基于一阶混杂Petri网模型的柔性制造系统粗糙控制.为构造正确的一阶混杂Petri网模型行为演变图,提出了确定改变Macro状态事件的新方法;进而给出了柔性制造系统优化与控制算法,并基于粗糙集合理论和所给出的算法,提出了柔性制造系统的粗糙控制方法.最后通过一个实例验证了该方法的有效性.     

基于ARM和Qt/E的车载HMI终端的设计

车载HMI是人与车辆之间的关键设备,使人能够对车辆的运行实现控制;设计了一种触摸控制与数字显示合理结合的车载HMI终端,采用ARM作为处理器,通过移植Qt/E对系统加以实现;该终端通过在Polo车CAN总线试验台测试,实现了对基本设备的触摸控制和车辆状态信息的实时显示,表明所设计的终端能够满足车载HMI的基本要求。     

利用FMS＋Flash实现实时视频应用

介绍了流媒体技术及其传输协议RTMP,提出了利用FMS＋Flash构建实时视频应用系统的方法。具体从FMS的配置与部署,FMS开发环境的调试,创建Flash通信应用等方面进行了探讨,并通过应用实例进行了展示。应用结果表明,该系统具有一定的应用价值。