The Cognitive Engineering Research Institute (CERI) is an independent, not-for-profit, research institute founded by partners from private industry, academia, and government laboratories.

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UASs from a Human Factors Perspective Workshop

Optional workshop held during AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems North America Conference 2009

This AUVSI workshop extended the previous efforts of five highly successful annual “Human Factors of UAVs” workshops. The goal of this “UASs from a Human Factors Perspective” workshop was to unite the human factors research community with the UAS operational community and UAS developers to identify the critical human factors challenges associated with UAS technology.

Thank you to AUVSI. We appreciated the opportunity to share our vision and collaborate with Kyle Snyder, AUVSI Director of Knowledge Resources, and their event planning staff. Because of their interest and involvement, we were pleased to be able to share this important information, stimulate thought and promote interaction across a larger audience of industry experts and developers. For more information about AUVSI, please see www.auvsi.org.

"UASs from a Human Factors Perspective" consisted of two panel sessions. The first panel included six human factors researchers and the second panel was comprised of UAS operators. Following each panel presentation, there was a discussion period in which panelists were asked to comment on specific issues or respond to select questions that were generated by the moderator and then augmented by questions posed in writing by other workshop participants.

Workshop Title:	UASs from a Human Factors Perspective
Dates:	August 11, 2009 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Location:	AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems North America Conference 2009; Washington, D.C.
Objective:	Provide a forum for interaction between UAS users, designers, developers, industry experts and human factors researchers Educate AUVSI attendees on human systems integration issues that impact design, training, and safety of the systems Provide information on state-of-the-art technologies for UAS training, simulation, and human performance measurement Help to educate human factors researchers and practitioners on system issues, capabilities, and constraints
Workshop Sponsor:	Air Force Research Laboratory, Human Effectiveness Directorate
Workshop Moderator:	Dr. Nancy Cooke - Science Director, CERI; Professor, Arizona State University
Agenda:	UASs from a HF Perspective Agenda (pdf)
Panelists:	List of Panelists (pdf)

Panelist’s Slides and Bios

Moderator's Introduction:

Nancy Cooke - CERI; Arizona State University
Slides (pdf)
Bio (pdf)

Human Factors Researchers Panel:

Some of the issues discussed included multi-UAV control; display issues, control issues, situation awareness, spatial orientation, standards across platforms, National Air Space integration concerns, and crew coordination issues. The human factors researchers highlighted some examples of research and development contributions from human factors and identified pressing human factors concerns.

Missy Cummings - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Slides (pdf)
Bio (pdf)

Mark Draper - Air Force Research Lab
Slides (pdf)
Bio (pdf)

Mike Goodrich - Brigham Young University
Slides (pdf)
Bio (pdf)

Bruce Hunn – Army Research Laboratory
Slides (pdf)
Bio (pdf)

Bill Kaliardos - Federal Aviation Administration
Slides (pdf)
Bio (pdf)

Jay Shively – US Army
Slides (pdf)
Bio (pdf)

UAS Operators Panel:

This panel consisted of UAS operators from different military services and civilian applications. Operators on the panel described their relevant experience and then provided anecdotal evidence and examples that served to emphasize the human factors issues (e.g., training, displays, controls, teamwork) and their importance. The panelists provided the audience with the usability of UAS technology from a user’s perspective.

Jeff "Goldy" Goldfinger – L-3 Communications; retired Navy
Slides (pdf)
Bio (pdf)

James "Rainman" Hoffman – US Air Force
Slides (pdf)
Bio (pdf)

Jeff Huddleston – Global UAS Services, principal; retired Navy
Slides (pdf)
Bio (pdf)