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Defense Intelligence Reference Document Cognitive Limits On Simultaneous Control Of Multiple Unmanned Spacecraft

Defense Intelligence Agency · 31 pages · text from the file's own layer

This Defense Intelligence Reference Document, dated 15 December 2010, is a Defense Intelligence Agency report from its Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Applications (AAWSA) Program. It looks at how many unmanned spacecraft one human pilot could control during future deep-space missions, drawing on research into air traffic control and piloting of multiple unmanned vehicles. It concludes that the limits are about 16 craft for simple tasks, 7 for moderately complex tasks and 4 for complex mixed fleets. It adds that physiological measures can signal when an operator is overloaded.

  • p. 5 …the focus of this paper as little work has been done in this specific area. However…
  • p. 6 …It is not a surprise that there is little work in this specific area - in fact…
  • p. 9 …The sympathetic system mediates response to stress, while the parasympathetic system works to maintain homeostasis and…
  • p. 13 …Only 1300 obeyed a Presidential order to return to work under the "peril to national safety…
  • p. 16 …during the 8-hour workday, night time after work. Additionally, controllers completed the State- Trait Anxiety…
  • p. 18 …time, an observation they note confirms earlier work on F4 crew members performing flight tasks of…
  • p. 21 …model with the SME approach doesn't work for predicting workload in the ATC task. 39…
  • p. 22 …it is intended for the pilot to work alongside the automation rather than rely on it…
  • p. 25 …This measure is called utilization and previous work in systems engineering 48 and queuing theory has…
  • p. 27 …The number of four is consistent with standard estimates of human working memory being able to…
  • p. 28 …picture can be maintained, even with external working memory augmentation, for more than about 16 objects…
  • p. 29 …Vigilance requires hard mental work and is stressful. Hum Factors 50, 433-441 (2008). 14 Dussault…
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 31 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.