A User Interface for Supervision of Missions in the Multi-UAV Context Using Text-to-Speech

Multi-UAV mission control requires a software solution that helps the operator to supervise individual UAVs and coordinate groups of units. This paper explores the experience and methodology of a User Interface for multi-UAVs systems developed for supporting a European project to aggregate heterogeneous UAVs in farming domain. The aim of the proposed system is to support the operator with the extra workload required for supervision of several UAVs while keeping their Situational Awareness (SA) high. The solution is evaluated with respect to workload and SA. A text-to-speech (TTS) approach is also evaluated to assess its effect on these metrics. The results show that while a TTS solution reduces the operator’s workload, over-reliance on the system can cause loss of SA for properties which are not directly presented by TTS.