Raytheon Announces Revolutionary New 'Cockpit' for Unmanned Aircraft (Link)

Raytheon Company unveiled Tuesday the Universal Control System (UCS) -- a first of its kind unmanned aerial system (UAS) "cockpit" that revolutionizes operator awareness and efficiency, while providing the ability to control multiple unmanned aircraft, reduce potential accidents, improve training, and decrease costs. The announcement was made during Shephard UV North America 2006 conference in Tysons Corner, Va.

"We took the best-of-breed technologies from the gaming industry and coupled them with 35-years Raytheon UAS command and control expertise and developed a state-of-the-art universal cockpit built around the operator," said Mark Bigham, business development director for Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems business.

"We broke down the operator's tasks and objectives and constructed a system built entirely around them, rather than building the system around the air vehicle first, without input from the operators. Improvements included adding a wrap-around display to enhance operator effectiveness. We wanted to put the operator in the UAS 'cockpit' virtually and dramatically enhance his or her situational awareness. UCS operators will have better situational awareness than any manned platform, which dramatically improves safety."

A 2004 study by the Federal Aviation Administration, "A Summary of Unmanned Aircraft Accident/Incident Data: Human Factors Implications," states that " ... a common theme across many of the mishaps reported involved a problem with the command interface to the system." The study also noted that "In the systems analyzed, human factors issues were present in 21 percent (Shadow) to 67 percent (Predator) of the accidents ... numbers suggest there is room for improvement if specific human factors issues can be identified and addressed." Bigham added that Raytheon is confident that UCS will improve operator performance statistics such as these found in this study, and that the company looks forward to analyzing user results.

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