The Human Factor in the uncrewed systems operations: a new webinar for OCEAN2020

01 July 2021

The main topic of the fourth OCEAN20202 webinar, held last 24 June, was the Human factor in uncrewed systems operations, whose objective is to support the process of command and control of operators, ensuring their situation awareness and supporting them in taking the right decision.

Within OCEAN2020, the most relevant Human Factor aspects were analysed, with special emphasis on remote pilots responsible for the navigation and the effectiveness of the mission of uncrewed systems, including the control of the on-board payloads. The webinar presented the results of the studies carried out within the project focussing on the integration of uncrewed systems with naval assets.

After an introduction given by Shahzad Ali, European Defence Agency (EDA) , that provided an overview of the EDA current activities on this topic fundamental for the next generation defence equipment, and a short presentation of the OCEAN2020 project, by Antonino Arecchi, OCEAN2020 Project Coordinator (Leonardo) , Tomasz Bajer, (CTM OBR S.a.), presented the role of the human factor in the design of the Human- Machine Interface, underlying how this topic has been analysed starting from operational requirements and training needs

Daniele Frisoni, OCEAN2020 Project Engineering Manager (Leonardo) presented the impact of the human factor in the integration of uncrewed systems in the naval environment, through the whole operational hierarchical command chain from the tactical level of CMS and uncrewed systems control stations up to the operational level of the Maritime Operation Centres (MOCs). These aspects were further analysed by Fernando Barbero (Indra) and Jonas Lekevicious (BPTI) that presented the design policies of the operator interface for MOCs and UxVs respectively.

Anna Bartnik e Marta Zapart (CTM, OBR S.a.) gave the last speech, illustrating some applications of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) in the realization of the Human-Machine Interface in different scenarios. These techniques are currently used in many industries - including computer games, interior design and even medicine. Introducing AR and VR, innovations in military User Interface/User Experience design could significantly improve the human factors. These solutions may also contribute to the development of technologies in the field of operations of the armed forces.