Implications for unmanned systems research of military UAV mishap statistics

Abstract

Human factors, particularly the consoles and controls of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), have not rated a high enough focus in relation to Unmanned Aerial Vehicle mishaps. The United States Air Force has documented Predator UAV mishaps during their operation over the past 15 years. Through quantitative analysis of these mishaps this paper will demonstrate that human factors have been a prominent causal and contributing factor. We argue that UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle) human factors design could learn from this unique dataset.