99--The Role of Human Factors in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Title: The Role of Human Factors in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has a requirement for research and development of products that will be used to assist FAA flight standards and air traffic in developing policies, procedures, and approval processes to enable operation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in the National Air Space (NAS). Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), or a more appropriate term, Unmanned Aircraft (UA) is an aircraft without an onboard pilot. The military has used unmanned aircraft for several decades with various levels of success. More recently, there has been an increase in demand for non-military unmanned aircraft operations. Within the last couple years, commercial unmanned aircraft operations have concentrated on surveillance and advertisement, but several companies have expressed an interest in using unmanned aircraft for long distance cargo transportation. Aviation analysts state that unmanned aircraft operations will transform the aviation industry and the recent proliferation of requests to use unmanned aircraft in the national air space is not a fad. Although unmanned aircraft refers to man-out-of-the-loop operation, the human operator is still a critical element in the success of an unmanned aircraft operation. Not surprisingly, the largest contributing factor for unmanned aircraft mishaps is human error. The unmanned aircraft will not have a pilot onboard, but there will be an operator monitoring the flight through airspace, a technician maintaining the aircraft and remote station, and the interaction of the unmanned aircraft with manned aircraft. In order for unmanned aircraft to be integrated in the national air space within five years (Flight Plan 2004-2008), the must understand the human factors issues of unmanned aircraft to ensure that safe operations occur in the national air space. The purpose of this announcement is to survey the market for other available sources with the capabilities, resources and qualifications to provide research and development services to support three mutually exclusive tasks: (1) unmanned aircraft operator qualification and training requirement, (2) maintenance considerations of unmanned aircraft requirement, and (3) air traffic control considerations of unmanned aircraft requirement. A description of each task requirement is below: Unmanned Aircraft Operator Qualification and Training Requirement: The General Aviation and Commercial Aviation Division needs human factors guidance to assist in the decision of who will operate UAVs and what type of training requirements these operators need. Research may investigate: · the effects of operator performance by different types of console display interfaces; how UAV flight mission profiles affect operator workload, vigilance, fatigue, and piloting performance; · determine whether prior flight experience is important to operate a UAV; · determine whether new opportunities present themselves in terms of the inclusion of persons with handicaps that were previously excluded from piloting aircraft but would not have difficulty with UA; · and investigate medical and physiological standards are required to operate a UAV. Final report will specifies operator training and qualification requirements related to the operation of UAVs within the NAS. Maintenance Considerations of Unmanned Aircraft Requirement: A report that compares and contrasts current general aviation maintenance facilities and operations to the proposed unmanned aircraft maintenance facilities operations. The report will emphasize human factors issues such as: · maintenance technician qualifications and training requirements for various types of unmanned aircraft; · compare and contrast maintenance technicians on the job requirements to perform a maintenance task between an aircraft and unmanned aircraft; · identify types of knowledge and skills required by a maintenance technician to certify that an unmanned aircraft is safe to fly; · identify unmanned aircraft maintenance tasks that are unique to aircraft maintenance; · compare and contrast type of resources required by aircraft maintenance facilities and unmanned aircraft maintenance facilities; · identify who would be a typical unmanned aircraft maintenance facility; · and what type of human factors training would be required to maintain unmanned aircraft. Air Traffic Control Considerations of Unmanned Aircraft Requirement: The introduction of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) into the NAS by commercial interests, as well as increased use by DOD and other government agencies, will generate a host of human factors issues associated with the management of airspace and the conduct of air traffic control (ATC) tasks. Air traffic controllers may need to interact with the operators of these vehicles under various circumstances and will need to be able to understand and predict UAV behavior to maintain separation and manage various classes of airspace. How controllers will interact with UAVs and how they will affect the controller's workload, situation awareness and ability to maintain a focus on airspace management is unknown. The FAA needs to identify the human factors issues and address them so that the introduction of UAVs can be accomplished in a reasonable manner. The intent of this effort is to identify these issues and generate alternative approaches to resolve them through human factors research at a later time. This research effort will culminate in a technical report that identifies human factors issues associated with the operation of UAVs in the controlled airspace of the NAS. The main product of this research effort will be a report that systematically identifies and analyzes the human factors issues associated with the increased frequency of UAV use in the NAS. It is expected that there will be a strong analytical component grounded in operational concerns that may emerge. At a minimum, the analysis should address the impact of UAV operations on ATC information processing, communication, display requirements, control and data input tasks, and the impact on controller ability to manage a mix of traffic (UAV and conventional aircraft) and perform their primary tasks. Government laboratories, university institutions, or contractors are eligible to compete for this project and may submit a capability/qualification statement for one or more tasks. The capability/qualification statement must address the following qualification statements. 1. Demonstrate knowledge in unmanned aerial vehicles. 2. If institution intends to submit a capability/qualification statement for the Unmanned Aircraft Operator Qualification and Training Requirement task, please submit demonstrated knowledge in selection and training, interface design, information management, performance assessment, workload, medical human factors. Include work pertaining to unmanned aerial vehicles. 3. If institution intends to submit a capability/qualification statement for the Maintenance Considerations of Unmanned Aircraft Requirement task, please submit demonstrated knowledge in aircraft maintenance human factors. Include work pertaining to unmanned aerial vehicles. 4. If institution intends to submit a capability/qualification statement for the Air Traffic Control Considerations of Unmanned Aircraft Requirement task, please submit demonstrated knowledge in air traffic control human factors. Include work pertaining to unmanned aerial vehicles. 5. Ability to coordinate, manage, and collect human factors data. 6. An operator who has logged unmanned aerial vehicle flight time. 7. Demonstrate knowledge of the FAA air traffic control, flight standards and certification processes. 8. List collaborative experiences with FAA, NASA, Department of Defense, and other research facilities. 9. List any currently funded UAV research project(s). State funding organization, amount, brief description of project, and how the project(s) may leverage proposed work. 10. Submit resume with a list publications along with representative sample of reprints pertaining to UAV research. A total period of performance of 24 months, including options, if any, is planned. The total estimated value is more than $100,000. If you are interested in being considered for award of this requirement, provide a written qualification statement (not to exceed 5 pages) documenting each of the requirements listed above including references. If this survey results in a competitive acquisition, the competition will be limited to those vendors who responded to this survey and were evaluated and determined to be qualified for all factors. Mail or deliver two copies of the qualification statement to Elayne Gomes-Battle, ASU 340, FAA, 800 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20591. The due date is prior to 4 pm Eastern Time on 2 July 2004. The FAA will not pay for any effort expended with respect to the responses.