Streamlining the Change-over Protocol for the Rpa Mission Intelligence Coordinator by Way of Situation Awareness Oriented Design and Discrete Event Simulation Thesis

Remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) provide highly effective capabilities – long loiter time, detailed sensing from great distance and an expendable platform. RPAs actively support military operations, homeland defense, firefighting, search and rescue operations, geophysical surveys, and commercial surveillance. Research is ongoing to maximize the utilization of existing assets in current and future operations, up to and including the concept of simultaneous Multiple Aircraft Control (MAC) by a single aircrew. A common challenge facing both MAC and current operations is the efficient transfer of situation awareness at shift change – dubbed “change-over”. This paper details the integration of Cognitive Task Analysis, Situation Awareness Oriented Design, and discrete-event simulation to inform the design of a highly efficient user-centered changeover protocol. The resultant protocol was modeled, simulated and measured, yielding a mean duration one-third that of current methods; a highly significant result for current operations and the feasibility of MAC. The subsequent results can serve as a baseline change-over protocol.