Immersive displays for building spatial knowledge in multi-UAV operations

This paper presents an experiment to evaluate the effects of immersive displays in a multi-UAV context in which the operator may need to understand not only the 3D spatial relationships between the UAVs but also where the UAV is with respect to mountains or other obstacles. To this end, a 3D simulator was developed and displays were selected based on their Field-of-Regard (FoR). Participants supervised a multi-UAV operation and the acquired spatial knowledge was evaluated using a Situational Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT). Moreover, a NASA-TLX study was done to measure the workload of each display. Finally, results showed that a gradual increase of immersion improved the spatial understanding of the UAV operator.