Manual and Cooperative Control Mission Management Methods for Wide Area Search Munitions

Wide Area Search Munitions (WASM) combine the attributes of unmanned aerial vehicles with those of traditional munitions. The WASM concept envisions artificially intelligent munitions that communicate and coordinate with one another and with human operators to effectively perform their tasks. This study examined target acquisition for unaided operators with that of an automated cooperative controller for a complex task involving the prosecution of groundbased targets. Participants completed nine trials for each control mode (manual and cooperative) by number of WASMs (4, 8, and 16) combination. Target hit rate was not affected by control mode or number of WASMs. However, target acquisition efficiency degraded under manual control and as the number of WASMs increased. Workload was greater for the manual mode and increased as number of targets increased. Self-ratings of the ability to perform a simultaneous attach were lower for the manual mode and decreased as the number of WASMs increased.