Application of an Active Joystick in a Rotorcraft UAV Ground Control Station

This paper presents the results of a joint research activity between DLR (Germany) and the University of Bologna (Italy) as an outcome of the CAPECON program. CAPECON is a European Union funded, civil UAV research program. The advent of active sidestick controllers in the manned rotorcraft industry has led to the question of how commercially available active joysticks could best be utilized in an UAV ground control station. A current major deficiency of UAV ground control stations is situational awareness. This paper documents the results of tests to significantly improve situational awareness while performing a useful task. The task was defined as a search/identification task deemed typical for a low cost, rotorcraft UAV. The task required the pilot to locate a ground object, accelerate towards the object in minimum time and go into hover hold mode while keeping the object in camera view at all times for identification. Three pilots performed this task with and without the joystick active features and filled out Cooper-Harper rating questionnaires. The main results were 1) although the forces generated by the joystick are small (+5 [N]), they were sufficient to backdrive the joystick enabling beneficial applications 2) the ground control station developed at the University of Bologna offered a simulation environment realistic enough to test the active features of the joystick and 3) handling qualities ratings of the search/identification task showed a clear improvement (Level 1 over Level 2) using the joystick active features which resulted in decreased workload, increased performance and situational awareness.