Enhancement and Application of a UAV Control Interface Evaluation Technique

UAV supervisory control interfaces are important for safe operations and mission performance. We reviewed existing UAV interface design and evaluation tools and identified limitations. To address issues with existing methods, we developed an enhanced evaluation tool, the M-GEDIS-UAV. The tool includes detailed criteria for all aspects of UAV control interface design to support operator performance. It also supports quantitative and objective assessment of an interface. We prototyped three UAV information displays, including a digital control display, analog control display, and “massive” data display, as part of a simulated supervisory control interface. Six analysts, including three human factors experts and three novices evaluated the interfaces using the M-GEDIS-UAV. Inter-rater reliability was high for the human factors experts, suggesting training in usability analysis is necessary for tool application. Results also revealed the massive data display to produce significantly lower evaluation scores than the other displays. We concluded that the M-GEDIS-UAV was sensitive to interface manipulations and was most effectively used by human factors experts. Using the M-GEDIS-UAV tool can reveal the majority of design deviations from guidelines early in the design process toward increasing the effectiveness of control interfaces.