Management drone (UAV) or "Gamers are at war"

 UAV - unmanned aerial vehicle. They are also called drones (from the English. Drone) or just drones. In fact, no drone does not exist. Any UAV has its own pilot operator, and some drones have two or three operators each. In this case, the term "unmanned" means that the pilot is not aboard the aircraft (LA). But the man controls the reconnaissance or shock drone.

The use of UAV in military conflicts, with the participation of the US Army, in recent years, has multiplied. In this regard, the US Congress in 2013 planned to introduce a medal "For Special Military Merit", which was believed to be handed to operators of drones and specialists of combat cyber-units who took part in military conflicts. But the righteous indignation of real veterans, participants in real battles, was so great that the medal without special pomp was quietly canceled. This speaks, first, of the multiply increased participation of operators in combat operations, and, secondly, about the brewing conflict in the UAV system - the operator.

 So who is the drone pilot operator? Military, making responsible decisions on the use of weapons? Or is it just a gamer who virtually controls an expensive toy from a distance? The task of the drone is not to endanger the person sitting in the cabin. Indeed, there is no physical danger for an operator located many miles from the scene of the hostilities. However, as American psychologists and physicians have found out, the UAV operator, which carried out military operations with the use of weapons, is subject to serious psychological stresses. He is even prone to post-traumatic syndromes, like a fighter who was directly involved in combat operations. No matter how automated drone drone is, man is responsible for his actions, for the use of weapons. The operational experience of operational-tactical unmanned aerial systems (LHC) has shown that a team of three people is most effective for control and decision-making.

The first is a pilot himself, the manager of the UAV, the second member of the team - the operator of combat systems. His responsibilities include the detection, target identification, and deciding on the use of weapons. And the third from the operator of intelligent systems, with experience in UAV control systems and owns intellectual support to help the pilot, which has excellent response in the decision. This team, with its workstations connected to a local network and are in the same control room.

The premise is mobile and equipped with all the necessary multifunctional controls, multifunction monitors, and hand controls. Hand controls include hand cocked airplanes and flyers in the manner of game joysticks. Despite the huge amount of modern equipment, this is clearly not enough for a large amount of incoming and processed information. This is well understood by pilots who know the difference between an airplane and a real flight. No matter how perfect the flight simulator or simulator, it has one significant drawback, the so-called "sensory hunger". This is, first of all, the absence of overloads, which the pilot feels in the flight "the fifth point".

The elusive change in the airplane space becomes immediately clear to the experienced pilot just this most notorious "fifth point", and this is not an anecdote, the author of these lines experienced this feeling. A small vertical or lateral load, speaks of the flight more than all the devices combined. So, the operator of UAV just these feelings and deprived. If we add here the lack of engine sound, and the inability to cast an instant glance left-right, up and down, the term "sensory starvation" becomes understandable. Work on feedback "UAV-pilot" is now under way. For example, the jitter of the picture on the screen, and the vibration of the flaist, can tell the operator about the aircraft being hit in a zone of turbulence, this will allow him to respond more quickly to a situation that is not unfavorable in flight.

 Operators were initially recruited from former or current pilots. But over time, it became clear that in terms of reaction speed, without feeling the "fifth point", it became clear that professionals are significantly inferior to ordinary gamers who have experience with flight simulators on computers or game consoles such as Playstation or XBox. Operators learning to pilot UAVs, which is called "from scratch", quickly mastered complex equipment and aircraft control, in contrast to pilots who made more mistakes and learned more slowly.

 But this raises a problem not of a technical nature, but of a moral and ethical one. For many years a professional military pilot has not only mastered sophisticated aviation technology, he is also preparing to make important decisions in extreme combat conditions. He is clearly aware of the full measure of responsibility for the use of military weapons, for the control of a very expensive aircraft. He himself is in the thick of things, in danger, for him this is not virtual reality. The civilian operator involved in the service of gamers is not always aware of the line between virtual and real space. For him, the game moment is preserved in the management of a multimillion dollar drone. Now there are ten levels of automation in the "operator-UAV" system. From full control and making all decisions by the human operator, to complete autonomy of the drone, where a person is just an observer who does not make any decisions. If in the first version all the moral and legal responsibility for giving the command "fire" is borne entirely by a person, then in the second version it is automation, a robot. And then cases of failure or malfunction can lead to fatal consequences. Now in US laboratories, research and development of a voice interface for communication between an operator and a robot drone is underway. And to make a responsible decision on the use of weapons, they can work out a joint decision, having previously "discussed" the situation.

 Now there is a tendency of greater responsibility of the human operator for the decisions made. Even the landing of heavy multifunctional UAV carries the operator. Drones are prone to a steeper glide path on the landing, to greater overloads and a tougher touch of the strip, which often leads to the failure of the landing gear, or simply the chassis. And now, UAVs are mainly planted by pilot operators, since the cost of a heavy drone is tens of millions of dollars.

By 2030 planned to construct a fully autonomous robot drone, take all decisions autonomously, until the target selection and application of combat shock. In the meantime, the leading place in the management of the UAV takes all the same person, the pilot, the operator is aware of the full measure of responsibility for someone's life.

Valery Smirnov specifically for Avia.pro