Principles of Display and Control Design of Remotely Piloted Vehicles

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Principles of Display and Control Design of Remotely Piloted Vehicles

L. J. Fogal / R. S. Gill / M. L. Mout / D. G. Hulett / C. E. Englund

Review of potential RPV mission assignments and the peculiar problems of RPV flight control lead to a preliminary experiment wherein the performance of Navy attack pilots, model aircraft pilots, and engineer non-pilots was compared on a simulated scenario using eight different display/control configurations (inside-out vs. outside-in, attitude display, predictive vs. non-predictive attitude display and position vs. rate control stick). Navy pilots demonstrated significantly better performance; however, no significant difference was found between inside-out and outside-in display (although almost all subjects, including Navy pilots, preferred the outside-in presentation). Attitude prediction was not found to be of value, and position control stick was significantly superior to the conventional rate stick. The Embedded Figures Test appears to be a useful indicator of expected performance. Analysis revealed that additional information is required for manual flight control. Specific problems of sensor control, diagnosis of ECM impact, and usage of autopilot capability were identified. Suitable recommendations were identified. Suitable recommendations were made in this regard. (Author)