Unmanned aerial vehicle control interface design and cognitive workload: A constrained review and research framework

Unprincipled design of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) control interfaces can increase operator cognitive workload and degrade performance. It is important to identify optimal interface design features that can serve to prevent cognitive overload under demanding task scenarios and environmental conditions. The present research summarized literature on critical issues in supervisory control interface design, current UAV interface design approaches and existing evaluation methods. A research framework was also proposed for a project to systematically and quantitatively relate UAV control interface features to cognitive workload outcomes. The framework also supports development an effective and efficient interface evaluation tool to predict cognitive workload based on specific design features.