Addressing barriers to widespread Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) operations in the NAS is a key goal of NASA research and development (R&D). One such barrier is the lack of tools enabling operators to team with automation to operate multiple UAS with minimal human oversight. This, in turn, requires a flexible testbed enabling research into key human automation teaming (HAT) areas (e.g., seamless sharing/trading of control between human and automation, trust calibration with highly autonomous systems, transparency, and understanding limitations of automation as a teammate). We propose to develop a ground station that serves as a Human Automation Teaming Testbed for management of Multiple UAS (M-HATT). M-HATT will facilitate R&D into HAT requirements by providing a testbed with: a) an architecture interoperable with NASA's Live Virtual Constructive Distributed Environment (LVC-DE) and international standards (e.g., 4586), and designed with sound properties (modular, flexible, extensible, and scalable); b) tools to configure new experiments without requiring substantial code changes; and c) human-centered interfaces and tools for tuning properties of automation. These capabilities will enable human systems integration (HSI) researchers to rapidly gain insights into challenging HAT research questions. In Phase I, we will define M-HATT requirements and create a proof of concept demonstration. In Phase II, we will implement M-HATT software components, and collaborate with NASA HSI researchers to use M-HATT to perform simulation studies and flight tests, and develop a commercialization plan.
Potential NASA Commercial Applications: (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) M-HATT is designed to play a key role in all future NASA projects that involve UAS research. In the near term (~1-5 years), M-HATT will provide NASA's UAS HSI researchers the capability to develop MOPS for SAA performance, HSI design guidelines for ground control stations, and HAT concepts with the existing LVC-DE. In near- and mid- terms (~1-10 years), M-HATT will assist the development of the Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) infrastructure throughout NASA's envisioned four UTM Builds. Other NASA programs that can leverage M-HATT for UAS simulation and flight tests, and to accelerate the investigation of research issues, include: 1) Trusted Autonomous Systems Program, which seeks methods for calibrating trust using a test case involving autonomous UAS operations; 2) Reduced Crew/Single Pilot Operations (RC/SPO), which seeks ways to team a ground dispatcher/pilot, and automation while engendering appropriate trust between them; and 3) AutoMax, an initiative researching automated management of future airspace operations including autonomous operations and autonomy technologies for unmanned vehicles.
Potential NON-NASA Commercial Applications: (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) M-HATT is a design and evaluation tool for new technologies developed by manufacturers of: 1) Small and large UASs (e.g., Aerovironment, General Atomics, Boeing, and Lockheed), and UAS avionics systems (e.g., communications and navigation) such as Honeywell and General Dynamics; 2) Organizations that have public oriented research interests in studies of regulatory, liability, and socio-policy-economic implications of autonomous UAS operations, such as the FAA, MITRE, and academic institutions; 3) Companies intending to use UAS technologies for package delivery or emergency response applications, such as Google, Amazon, and UPS. These companies will need to develop and test UAS ground control stations tailored to their operations; and 4) Organizations that have made large investment in UAS technologies and deployed them in military missions (e.g., DoD and CIA). These organizations are leading R&D efforts for using autonomy to increase the number of UASs controlled by a single operator. Their labs are actively researching resulting HAT issues, and will need for a testbed such as M-HATT to conduct simulations for training or evaluations.
Technology Taxonomy Mapping: (NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.) Air Transportation & Safety Autonomous Control (see also Control & Monitoring) Command & Control Intelligence Man-Machine Interaction Perception/Vision Robotics (see also Control & Monitoring; Sensors) Simulation & Modeling Software Tools (Analysis, Design) Teleoperation
