Empirical Study on Operator Interface Design for Handheld Devices to Control Micro Aerial Vehicles

摘要

The use of Extremely Agile Micro Aerial Vehicles (EA-MAVs) drives the need for a small and light controller which will not hinder a soldier carrying it. This requirement brings an issue of designing an effective operator interface coupled with the controller. Little human factors work has been done on what the most effective method is for controlling EA-MAVs using a handheld device. To investigate design methods for the development of an interface which must be intuitive in function and easy to learn for an average soldier, DRDC Toronto conducted an experiment to evaluate interface display mode and command control input method. Display mode compared a display that showed both a sensor view and a map view (simultaneous) with a display that showed one view at a time (sequential). Command control input method compared two types of input control methods: touch screen and tactile buttons. Forty four (44) subjects participated in the experiment and navigated a virtual EA- MAV through specified waypoints in an urban area and a building. Subjects' performance was measured against six dependent variables: (1) situation awareness, (2) display switch frequency (between sensor view and map view), (3) task completion time, (4) mental workload, (5) trajectory error of the flight, and (6) training time. The results revealed that the simultaneous display and the touch screen control are the optimal design methods for the handheld interface to be used easily when maintaining situation awareness. The findings provided guidance for designing operator interfaces on handheld devices and further facilitated the development of a statement of requirements of EA-MAV systems.