DOW-UAP-D151, AAWSAP DIRD, Cognitive Limits on Simultaneous Control of Multiple Unmanned Spacecraft, December 2010

Department of War · 12/15/10 · Las Vegas, Nevada · Document

DOW-UAP-D151, AAWSAP DIRD, Cognitive Limits on Simultaneous Control of Multiple Unmanned Spacecraft, December 2010 is indexed as a Department of War record with incident date 12/15/10 and location Las Vegas, Nevada. This document is a Defense Intelligence Reference Document (DIRD), a technical reference format used by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to capture baseline knowledge on a specific topic for later analytic use. DIRDs are best understood as reference and synthesis products rather than as original research. It is one of 38 DIRDs produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) between 2009 and 2011. Because AAWSAP s scope permitted a broad range of supporting topics, not every DIRD in the series directly concerns aerospace systems or future threat assessment. The following summary reflects the DIRD s scope and framing at the time of writing and should not be read as implying current validation of the concepts discussed. This DIRD examines how many unmanned spacecraft a single human operator could realistically supervise or control at once, using research from air traffic control and multi-vehicle remote piloting as rough analogs. The report argues that the practical limit depends heavily on task complexity: about 16 craft for simple monitoring or destination assignment, about 7 for moderately complex piloting or mission tasks, and about 4 for complex heterogeneous operations. It places particular emphasis on the operator s ability to maintain a coherent mental big picture of multiple vehicles at once, and it suggests that automation and external displays can help by offloading working-memory demands, though not eliminating them. The document also highlights physiological workload measures as a possible way to detect or predict operator overload in real time. Overall, it presents multi-spacecraft control as a human-factors and systems-integration problem in which progress depends on managing cognitive limits through interface design, automation, and workload monitoring. Redactions have been made to protect the identity of eyewitnesses, the location of government facilities, or potentially sensitive information about military sites not related to UAP. No redactions have been made to any files released under President Trump's directive concerning information about the nature or existence of any encounter reported as a UAP or related phenomena.

Notable / anomalous element

• Mission control of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles: a workload analysis. (native PDF text, page 31)
• Pilots develop an internal mental representation of the identity, position, mission, and current direction of relevant objects. (native PDF text, page 5)
• The most common aircraft anomaly is deviation from flightpath in en-route sectors. (native PDF text, page 13)
• For example, a trailing spacecraft of nuclear powered electromagnets designed to shield the manned part of the fleet from solar radiation; halo spacecraft with powerful radars to scout for incoming objects; exploration and mining craft, etc. (native PDF text, page 5)

Details

• UNCLASSIFIED//F&R &FFIOIAl l118E 8Hl Cognitive Lim its on Simultaneous Control of Multiple Unmanned Spacecraft The Defense Intelligence Reference Document provides non-substantive but authoritative reference information related to intelli ence to ics or methodolo ies. (native PDF text, page 3)
• This product is one of a series of advanced technology reports produced in FY 2010 under the Defense Intelligence Agency, Defense Warning Office's Advanced Aerospace m Weapons System Applications (AAWSA) P ra!i o:auestions pertaining to this document should be addressed to jAAP Person 1 AAWSA Program Manager, Defense. (native PDF text, page 3)
• 1 Chapter 2: Measurement of Mental Workload. (native PDF text, page 4)
• 7 Chapter 3: Studies in Cognitive Workload for Air Traffic Controllers. (native PDF text, page 4)
• 8 Modeling the Air Traffic Control Task. (native PDF text, page 4)
• 15 Chapter 4: Studies in Command of Multiple Semi-Automated Vehicles. (native PDF text, page 4)
• One-dimensional Representation of Changes in Performance as Workload Varies. (native PDF text, page 4)
• 8HL'I Cognitive Limits on Simultaneous Control of Multiple Unmanned Spacecraft Summary Space exploration 40 years into the future may include manned missions to parts of the outer solar system. (native PDF text, page 5)

Tags: War Department, Nevada, AAWSAP, Technical research, Weapons, Aerial phenomena, Aircraft, Anomalous object