Synthetic Vision to Augment Sensor Based Vision for Remotely Piloted Vehicles

In the past fifteen years, several research programs have demonstrated potential advantages of synthetic vision technology for manned aviation. More recently, some research programs have focused on integrating synthetic vision technology into control stations for remotely controlled aircraft. The contribution of synthetic vision can be divided into two categories. The depiction of the environment and all relevant constraints contributes to the pilot's situation awareness, while the depiction of the planned path and its constraints allows the pilot to control or monitor the aircraft with high precision. This paper starts with an overview of the potential opportunities provided by synthetic vision technology. A distinction is made between the presentation domain and the function domain. In the presentation domain, the benefits are obtained from making the invisible visible. In the function domain, benefits are obtained from the possibility to integrate data from the synthetic vision system into other functions. The paper continues with a number of examples of situation awareness support concepts which have been explored in the current research. After this, the potential contribution of synthetic vision technology to the manual control task is discussed and it is indicated how these potential advantages will be explored in the next research phase