Investigation of error rates when controlling multiple uninhabited combat aerial vehicles

As systems become more and more complex the use of automation tools becomes more important. Although automation is introduced to reduce human workload, improve situational awareness, and system reliability, increases in automation features also increase the overall complexity of the system. Despite the fact that research has been and is being conducted investigating the effects of automation on human performance, the results are often contradictory. This suggests the need for a universal way of presenting results so that trade-offs can be carried out between different studies. The purpose of this research was to investigate how a decision structure approach might be used as an aid for designers and researchers to conduct design trade-offs when designing user interfaces for uninhabited combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs).