Experimental evaluation of an adaptive planning assistance system in manned unmanned teaming missions

Abstract

The task-based guidance of multiple unmanned aircraft (UAV) from aboard a manned aircraft increases the mission performance and reduces the potential risk for the crew. In time-critical situations an adaptive assistance system can simplify or take-over the UAV to avoid mishaps. This article describes and evaluates the effects of such planning assistance with different intervention levels in a human-in-the-loop experiment with German Air Force pilots. For this purpose, we present three different intervention levels (hint, simplification, take-over). The three intervention levels are then examined in four different threat situations to determine their appropriateness. The results show that too high intervention is rated negatively in low threat situations. In the case of a threat to the manned fighter and the unmanned systems, the simplification and take-over intervention were evaluated very positively and the time between the occurrence of the threat and the delegation of the countermeasures was drastically reduced.