Human Factors in UAV Mishaps

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology involves use of aircrafts that have no crew for the purposes of carrying out complex aerial operations. These aircrafts are either operated from a distant location or follows a predestined flight program. They are intended to carry out functions such as surveillance, reconnaissance and military operations. These aircrafts have an added advantage of the fact that, one pilot can be used to control several vehicles at the same time. UAVs are preferred for use in areas that would have been risky to engage manned aircrafts such as delivery of weapons especially during military attack missions. UAVs are also used for research work in risky weather such as typhoons and other scientific explorative work. In addition, UAVs have been used for commercial and civil purposes. 

This technology is still in the development phase and most of UAVs have also been used to develop more knowledge about how to progress this technology. The UAV technology has gained significance in its capability of enhancing the combat power of the military in regard to aerial war (Valavanis, Paul, Piegl, 2009, p.25). These vehicles have the potential to provide good surveillance and other observatory exercised with high degree of economy compared to other manned aircrafts. The have the capacity to cover a wider range of an area with higher persistence and cover low attitudes without giving out loud noises compared to other manned aircrafts. Their low survivability in operations has been associated to human error and missing of their targets.

Military purposes 

Most of these UAVs are used in military operations to carry out reconnaissance operations so as to provide the military personnel with advanced information about the enemy and the battlefield. In this field, they are also used to stimulate an attack from the enemy in by sending an UAV as a decoy. The UAV are unique in the effect that they are able to record as the enemy shoots at them and send that information immediately to the operation station before the impact from the attacker (Cooke, Connor, 2006, p.17). They are also applied to carry out attack operations to the enemy. Some of such successful missions included the Hellfire-c missile that was fired from an air vehicle called Predator in 2001 at Nevada air base during trials. Thereafter, the same technique was used to drop a missile in Yemen which hit its target in 2002. Unmanned aerial vehicles gained significance during the time of Gulf war in 1990s. Thereafter, the stake of their use increased during the peace keeping missions that took place in the Balkans. Thereafter, these vehicles have increased use in the war at Afghanistan where they are not only used for providing surveillance data but also have been used as platforms for delivering weapons to their target points. This has been aided by their potential to perform military operations with strategic and tactical capability. 

Despite their high utility, UAV brings about a greater challenge in human factor operation in more ways as compared to the manned aircrafts. This is particularly so because, the operator and the aircraft have a significant separation in location. This separation creates a number of complexities which limit the optimum performance in human operation. This includes the loss of sensory signals which are very important in control of any given flight. The separation between the aircraft and the controller causes delays in communication which is sometimes caused by lack of proper recording of the visual information of the environment (Wise, Gerland  Hopkin, 2009, p.45). The lapse in passage of information between the pilot and the aircraft in most cases results in flight mishaps which are in most cases blamed on the operator.

Some of the most successful operations have been associated to the Predator which is a medium altitude UAV with a long endurance. This vehicle is powered by a turboprop engine and can fly at an altitude of 50,000 feet. Predator is controlled from a ground station which is located on a single trailer measuring about 30 feet.

The ground station contains the pilot, the operator supporters, three data analysis equipments, mission planning assistants and a pair of simulated workstations which are accompanied by a satellite. There is also a combination of ground data terminals which determine of flight. This ground station sends images of data collected to other operators for necessary action using a satellite communication (Martinussen, Hunter, 2009, p.29). In its operation, the predator follows a normal launch sequence from a partially prepared surface which has a direct line of control sight. It lands and takes off from a length of 2,000 feet. From the ground station, the mission of this UAV can be controlled via links that are connected to the line of sight through a band satellite which produces a continuous video image. The images that are received from UAV at the control station are transmitted directly to the operational users through a commercial system of broadcast. A diagram showing the Predator UAV on mission

Despite the underlying success in use of UAVs, a lot of focus has been given to the high rate of losses that has been associated to them due to accidents. The increase in use of this technology ha been accompanied by an increase in rates of accidents associated to these aircrafts. In overall, the accident rates in the unmanned air vehicles have been higher than that of manned ships. This new technology usually uses new materials which have been bound to fail. In the past, material failure has been found to have contributed to 45 percent total of accidents that have occurred in all of the UAVs. Progress in this area has led to improvement in material safety leaving and reduction of accidents due to material failure (Jackson, 2003, p.31). For the manned civil and military aircrafts, accidents due to material failure and human error has decreased progressively mainly due to the advancement in technology over the years. The role of human in operation of these vehicles though from a different location has not escaped responsibility to their failure in operation. Close to 60 percent of the unmanned aerial vehicles have been reported to clash as a result of human errors. A higher percent of these errors have occurred at a time before these vehicles have been assigned to their work in battlefields or at improvement stages. The use of UAVs over unmanned aircrafts has been supported by their success in meeting the requirements of the mission they are intended to perform.

There has been a need to fully understand the contributing factors that lead to human error in order to formulate adequate measurers to counter this problem. The development of unmanned aerial vehicles intended to meet the human safety as well as eliminating the chances of human error in their operations. Even though most of these UAVs are automated, the human element is still a major constituent that is involved in the planning, manufacturing, training of ground operators, and maintenance of these vehicles. One of the major roles played by humans is the manufacture of the intricate software that is used in controlling of UAVs operations once they are airborne (Martinussen, Hunter, 2009, p.37). Humans also play a big role in directing takeoffs and landing of some specific types of UAVs.

Some of the major causes of human errors in operation of UAVs is associated to the level of workload, fatigue due to long hours of operation, low degree of awareness of the situation where the vehicle is flying through and lack of adequate training. In addition, lack of proper coordination between the crew involved in its operation and lack of proper design of the vehicle can also lead to human error. All these errors lead to failure of the vehicle in its mission. In regard to the issue of training, by 2005, there were no any processes set in place for certification of pilots and setting out procedures to be followed by pilots involved in operation of UAVs (Williams, 2004, p.4). This supports the notion that, lack of adequate and harmonized training for these pilots could have been a great contributing factor in these accidents. This is particularly so in the cases where one operator has taken charge of more than one UAVs.

Their potential for future use in operations lies in their survivability to accomplish assignments that are difficult for manned aircrafts such as scattering the runways and shelters of other aircrafts to suppress the air defense of the enemy. They are also capable surviving in a chemical warfare zone and can be used to attack such facilities. More emphasis will be directed towards the place of human control in these systems. Systematic approaches are underway to allocate functions between automation and humans (Cooke, Connor, 2006, p.54). However, the role of human will still remain at high in the utilization of principles in the design of the systems and other crucial internal factors. This system has a room for improvement as the necessary technologies that relate to the landing podiums, avionics, propulsions and missions are already advanced to accommodate any new developments. Greater interest is being given to the different modes in sensor technology with an aim of creating an interface between this system and human.

The NASA is formulating curriculum to be used for training pilots that will be involved in propagation of these vehicles in the future. There is a sign of advancement of programs employed in UAV such as Global Hawk. This advancement tends to show a shift to programs that are intended at providing the operator with an opportunity to give superior commands to the vehicle without necessarily having the control of the direction of flight and the throttle. Other programs in the vehicle will be handled by a computer program in the aircraft. These programs will have the control of the taking off flight path control and landing of the vehicle which are based on a pre-programmed flight plan and time which has a lot of human input in it (Wise, Gerland,  Hopkin, 2009, p.65). The future interaction between human and the UAV will be very different as the technology increases the autonomy of these vehicles during their flight. Currently, the control of UAVs is undertaken through a system of sticks, throttle and rudder to maintain the vehicle to its path during the entire flight journey. The advancement in technology  has helped in designing of UAVs which have the potential to land by themselves and even fix themselves in the ramp of an airport with utmost precision. Plans are underway to programs them with ability to refuel themselves.

The human factor in the UAVS 

The increment in significance of the UAVS in the military field has brought about the rise in the role played by the human factor. The involvement of human is embodied in the full operation of these vehicles from designing of the aircraft and the inherent programs that helps the aircraft to maneuver difficult terrain to their maintenance. Any successful mission is usually associated with the vehicle while a failure in the mission either through crash landing or attack by enemy is at times blamed to the human error in its operation (Cooke, Connor, 2006, p.49). During such accidents, the human factor is classified to five major types. The individual failure where a pilot operating an aircraft from a location makes a mistake as an individual which ends up causing failure of the vehicle in its mission.

The decision making of an individual person determines the way he controls a vehicle in mission. In such incidents, the decision making errors includes when an external pilot hurriedly turns using steep angles which does not conform to the landscape, prevents an appropriate climb rate, which results in a crash, or when the wrong response to an emergency situation is made through giving of idle power after the nesting hook has already attached itself on the arresting hook (Williams, 2004, p.7). A single mishap can be categorized as the one which preconditions for unsafe actions and can further be branded as a result of the mistake of the controllers. In such an accident, report can be noted to contain poor synchronization between the pilot and the vehicle being controlled.

The issue of risk taking as it relates to safety has a lot of significance in manned ands unmanned aircrafts. Whereas in the manned aircraft the pilot is aware of sharing the fate of his aircraft, the pilot or controller of the unmanned aircraft is by no means going to suffer the fate of the flight under his control. This factor has been estimated to be a lead cause of mishaps among many UAVs. There has been the need to create ethics to be followed by these pilots to avoid such mishaps. The leader of grounds station can also make a mistake which can also lead to a total failure by failing to make sure certain standards of operations are followed during operation. When a pilot reports of any difficulty in operation, the leader is supposed to advice in real time giving the most appropriate line of action (Williams, 2004, p.10). The human factor also plays a big role in developing and availing appropriate support systems in forms of equipment, services. In addition, a deficiency in provision of appropriate personnel to offer support to the pilot controlling such vehicle at a ground station can lead to a failure which is associated to human error.

Humans are also involved in developing definite procedural standards to be followed in operations of these vehicles. If a station fails to provide such standards, the mission is bound to fail which can be highly associated to human errors in relation to safety. These s levels of safety can be is divided into mistakes and violations. These categories differ in reason of their occurrence. Mistakes are unintentional and are further separated into skill-oriented mistakes, decision mistakes and mistakes of perception. Skill-based mistakes include unintentionally omission of an item on a checklist, not prioritizing actions and omission of a technical step. Decision mistakes include use of wrong procedure, misdiagnosis of an emergency and performance of an incorrect action (Jackson, 2003, p.32). Perceptual mistakes are those made due to the presence of visual illusions and spatial disorientation. Violations are willful mistakes. This includes violating training rules, performing an overaggressive maneuver and intentionally exceeding mission constraints.

At present, UAV operators have a wide experience about flying as they are enlisted from personnel with some basic training about flight operations. The US air force makes use of its commissioned pilots who are drawn from bombers, fighters and other aircrafts such as transport aircrafts (Valananis, Paul, Peigl, 2009, p.69). However, future trends will be very different as these vehicles become more and more independent during their flight.

There has been a need to develop a logical interface for UAV operations. This is most necessary as the information received is being interpreted by humans. This ranges from the normal two dimensional to three dimensional views which would promote a visual presence of the receiver of the information. Most of present day efforts in this technology are directed towards enhancing the ground stations which incorporates the human factors in engineering. These systems are aim at supporting the control of these vehicles for in long range missions.

The take off and landing of unmanned aerial vehicles constitute to the large part s of the human factor in their control. Despite the high development in the autonomy of these vehicles which reduces the reliance of human control and the associated cause of errors, human factor still remains significant in all modes of these vehicles. For the autonomous aircrafts, there is a great need to develop a method which there is a control of these vehicles in the airspace that is occupied by civilian aircrafts. In addition, there is also great need to develop a system under which there automated control can be taken over. By human operator incase such system fails in the middle of a mission (Martinusssen, Hunter, 2009, p.107). It is also important to develop and set guidelines on how the human operator will access and override the automate systems if there is need to do so. 

There also programs that are intended to help these aircrafts to fly even after the aircrafts has suffered some damage on their parts such as wings. Despite the rapid explosion in UAV technology, most of these vehicles are small in size which limits the ability of these vehicles to carry with them surplus support systems that would assist in propagation of the vehicle in case of a failure in its inbuilt system (Jackson, 2003, p.142). Many of these failures occurs when the vehicle is far away from the operation site, the lack of human presence to rectify a problem that would be associated to environmental or other internal problems increases the magnitude of these accidents. 

In summary, unmanned aerial vehicles these aircrafts are controlled from a remote site while others fly autonomously using a fore-planned flight path through the use of versatile systems of automation. The most significant aspect about these aircrafts is that they are dependent on ground operation stations and systems during their flight. The technology however presents a breakthrough in aviation industry which is very significant now and in future.