Human–Machine Interface Design for Monitoring Safety Risks Associated with Operating Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems in Urban Areas

The envisioned introduction of autonomous Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) into low-altitude urban airspace necessitates high levels of system safety. Despite increased system autonomy, humans will most likely remain an essential component in assuring safety. This paper derives, applies, and evaluates a display design concept that aims to support safety risk monitoring of multiple sUAS by a human operator. The concept comprises of five design principles. The core idea of the concept is to limit display complexity despite increasing the number of sUAS monitored by primarily visualizing highly abstracted information while hiding detailed information of lower abstraction, unless specifically requested by the human operator. States of highly abstracted functions are visualized by function-specific icons that change hue in accordance to specified system states. Simultaneously, the design concept aims to support the human operator in identifying off-nominal situations by implementing design properties that guide visual attention. The display was evaluated in a study with seven subject matter experts. Although preliminary, the results clearly favor the proposed display design concept. The advantages of the proposed design concept are demonstrated, and the next steps for further exploring the proposed display design concept are outlined.