212
Sensemaking in Safety Critical and Complex Situations
• In 1912, A. J. Roberts’ wireless control of an airship is the oldest known use of
wireless technology to control a flying object from ground ( Miessner, 1916).
• In 1918, Charles Kettering developed a gyroscope-controlled autonomous
flying object ( missile) with no ground control mechanism ( Brittain, 2009).
• In the early 1920s, the inventor Elmer Sperry used wireless controls to feed
path correction to an aircraft for aerial delivery of messages.
• In 1939, hobbyist Reginald Deny built radio control decoy planes for the
military for target practice.
• In 1962, a project was started to produce autonomous spy planes, such as the
D-21 Tagboard and the Ryan Model 147 Lightning Bug, no over the horizon
ground controls were implemented in the design.
• In 1982, the success of Israel’s unmanned decoys over Lebanon’s Bekaa
Valley brought the U.S. military’s focus back to the subject of unmanned
drones, at the time relays were used to provide over the horizon control of a
drone and formal GCS were being used.
• In mid-1990s, the development of GCS took a leap into the future when a
formal GCS was developed to control a Predator UAS via satellite ( Haines,
2007). In 1999, UAS garnered attention during military operations in
Kosovo, when they were mainly used for reconnaissance.
A simplified timeline of UAS development is shown in Figure 13.1.
uaS DeveloPment
At the turn of the 21st century, operating UAS controls via satellite from a remote
GCS was still a relatively new concept. The GCS design and testing were a lackluster
process that was missing adherence to any applicable standards. The developers had
not yet decided on principles or paradigms for layout of the safety-critical GCS. The
GCS could look exactly like a cockpit or it could simply look like a control room
environment. Therefore, a tug of war ensued between these two competing paradigms to operate UAS from the GCS while allowing developers leeway to experiment
with varying levels/ types of UAS control mechanism. The developers designed new
systems to find the right balance between “ ground control” and “ autonomous controls” ( Zhang, Feltner, Shirley, Kaber, & Neubert, 2020; Mouloua, Gilson, Kring, &
Hancock, 2001). Figure 13.2 shows both paradigms:
Development of new UAS systems turned into a competition for developers to
showcase their latest and greatest UAS GCS technology. This coupled with the lack
of applicable HF/E s tandards for GCS compounded the HF/E s hortfalls in UAS GCS,
leading to an increased number of UAS mishaps ( Waraich, Mazzuchi, Shahram, &
Rico, 2013; Nisser & Westin, 2006). Nowadays, UAS have found their purpose in
both military and civilian sector. Farmers are utilizing the UAS for crop assessment,
forecasting, disease/ weed detection, and other applications including fishery, land
surveys, oceanography, and firefighting ( Berni, Zarco-Tejada, Suarez, & Fereres,
2009; Pastor, Lopez, & Royo, 2007). The hobbyists, photographers, recreationists,
and surveyors all have a UAS specifically designed to cater their needs (H amilton &
Stephenson, 2016).
Sensemaking in Safety Critical and Complex Situations
• In 1912, A. J. Roberts’ wireless control of an airship is the oldest known use of
wireless technology to control a flying object from ground ( Miessner, 1916).
• In 1918, Charles Kettering developed a gyroscope-controlled autonomous
flying object ( missile) with no ground control mechanism ( Brittain, 2009).
• In the early 1920s, the inventor Elmer Sperry used wireless controls to feed
path correction to an aircraft for aerial delivery of messages.
• In 1939, hobbyist Reginald Deny built radio control decoy planes for the
military for target practice.
• In 1962, a project was started to produce autonomous spy planes, such as the
D-21 Tagboard and the Ryan Model 147 Lightning Bug, no over the horizon
ground controls were implemented in the design.
• In 1982, the success of Israel’s unmanned decoys over Lebanon’s Bekaa
Valley brought the U.S. military’s focus back to the subject of unmanned
drones, at the time relays were used to provide over the horizon control of a
drone and formal GCS were being used.
• In mid-1990s, the development of GCS took a leap into the future when a
formal GCS was developed to control a Predator UAS via satellite ( Haines,
2007). In 1999, UAS garnered attention during military operations in
Kosovo, when they were mainly used for reconnaissance.
A simplified timeline of UAS development is shown in Figure 13.1.
uaS DeveloPment
At the turn of the 21st century, operating UAS controls via satellite from a remote
GCS was still a relatively new concept. The GCS design and testing were a lackluster
process that was missing adherence to any applicable standards. The developers had
not yet decided on principles or paradigms for layout of the safety-critical GCS. The
GCS could look exactly like a cockpit or it could simply look like a control room
environment. Therefore, a tug of war ensued between these two competing paradigms to operate UAS from the GCS while allowing developers leeway to experiment
with varying levels/ types of UAS control mechanism. The developers designed new
systems to find the right balance between “ ground control” and “ autonomous controls” ( Zhang, Feltner, Shirley, Kaber, & Neubert, 2020; Mouloua, Gilson, Kring, &
Hancock, 2001). Figure 13.2 shows both paradigms:
Development of new UAS systems turned into a competition for developers to
showcase their latest and greatest UAS GCS technology. This coupled with the lack
of applicable HF/E s tandards for GCS compounded the HF/E s hortfalls in UAS GCS,
leading to an increased number of UAS mishaps ( Waraich, Mazzuchi, Shahram, &
Rico, 2013; Nisser & Westin, 2006). Nowadays, UAS have found their purpose in
both military and civilian sector. Farmers are utilizing the UAS for crop assessment,
forecasting, disease/ weed detection, and other applications including fishery, land
surveys, oceanography, and firefighting ( Berni, Zarco-Tejada, Suarez, & Fereres,
2009; Pastor, Lopez, & Royo, 2007). The hobbyists, photographers, recreationists,
and surveyors all have a UAS specifically designed to cater their needs (H amilton &
Stephenson, 2016).