Comparing UAV Pilots’ Traffic Awareness

Abstract: The growing popularity of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has led to increased conflict and collision potential between manned and unmanned aircraft. Beyond the visual line of sight, UAV missions require an airspace observer, who may fail to provide accurate traffic information. This work proposes a novel traffic display design that provides conflict and avoidance maneuver guidance in addition to information on surrounding traffic. In a human-in-the-loop experiment, UAV pilots’ perception of surrounding traffic using the novel display was evaluated against that of a “perfect” airspace observer (baseline condition). Results show that the novel traffic display offered more comprehensive traffic awareness at the perception level compared to the baseline condition. Positional quality did not differ notably, although accurate information was provided in the baseline condition.