ABSTRACT
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have made a definitive contribution to military operations, and their role as a war-fighting tool is expected to increase dramatically. With teleoperation, compared to manned missions, operators are constrained with respect to the visibility of the environment in which the vehicle operates. UAV operators must rely on video imagery transmitted from one or more video cameras mounted on the air platform. Synthetic vision systems can potentially enhance video interpretation and the level of UAV operator situation awareness, and, consequently, improve decision making. A synthetic vision system can also provide information that does not have a correlate in the actual sensor imagery and hence cannot be seen by the naked eye. By representing non-visual task-related information in a graphical way, the operator would be able to gain enhanced situation awareness. A synthetic vision system can additionally serve a key role in supporting distributive collaborative communication in a net-centric battlespace environment.
