Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) mission management technologies such as human machine interfaces and automation have been identified as the key limiting factors to increasing mission effectiveness. This paper provides an overview of current limitations and issues in operating UAVs, addressing (1) difficulties in the manual control task and high landing mishap rates, (2) reliability and integrity of deployable autoland functions, (3) the difficulties of integrating unmanned aircraft in the existing airspace system and (4) limitations of existing hazard detection and resolution systems. After that, the potential opportunities provided by synthetic vision technology and automation are discussed. Based on these opportunities, several innovative display and control concepts have been developed, that aim to increase safety and efficiency in the identified problem areas. First, a concept for improved manual control performance is introduced, for those classes of UAVs for which autoland is not an option. Subsequently, the design and evaluation of a deployable autoland concept is presented, that allows involvement of a human operator for conformance and integrity monitoring. Next, a sense and avoid concept is proposed, that enables a seamless transition from human-in-the-loop self-separation to autonomous conflict avoidance in time-critical situations. Finally, a refinement and extension of the proposed sense and avoid concept is presented, that enables integrated, multi-dimensional conflict avoidance.
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