Virtual UAV Ground Control Station

Abstract

A new design for an immersive ground control station is presented that allows operators to monitor and control one or more semi-autonomous unmanned remote vehicles. This new ground station utilizes a virtual reality based visualization of the operational space and the graphical representation of multiple information streams to create a comprehensive immersive environment designed to significantly enhance the operator’s situational awareness over present generation “soda straw” optical systems. The environment simultaneously informs the operator about the position and condition of the vehicles under his or her control while providing an organizing context for the available information relevant to the engagement. The work on this new control station combines results from an Air Force Research Lab sponsored project in immersive joint battlespace visualization and a new virtual reality teleoperation control architecture. The technique is applicable to a range of vehicles including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), unmanned border patrol vehicles, and unmanned search and rescue vehicles. An architecture for virtual reality aided teleoperation is presented as well as its implementation in software and results of a preliminary user test that compared this approach to a more traditional optical teleoperation system. The paper concludes with a discussion of how this new teleoperation system could evolve into a next generation UAV ground control station.