Automated Aid Evaluation for Transitioning UAS Camera Views

Control applications involving multiple Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) will often require the operator to switch attention between UASs and their respective camera views. An automated aid that transitions between camera views is under evaluation. Instead of discretely switching from the camera view for one UAS to the camera view for another, a transition format is presented. With this format, the camera imagery seamlessly fades into a synthetic imagery correlate of the real video image and then uses a “fly-out, fly-in” metaphor over several seconds, finishing with a transition back from synthetic to real video imagery at the new camera viewpoint. The results from the present simulation evaluation provide support that an automated camera view transition aid can improve task performance and situation awareness. Moreover, the results show potential benefits of allowing an operator to decide where and when the fly-in segment starts.