ABSTRACT
Uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs) are remotely-piloted aircraft that are increasingly being used for both military and civilian applications (Gawron, 1998). This article describes the development of multiple synthetic tasks for UAV reconnaissance operations based on a cognitive task analysis (CTA) of UAV operators. A synthetic task is a moderate fidelity simulator that can be used for research and training. Three essential features of synthetic tasks are that they represent the key cognitive and perceptual demands of a complex task, are easily reconfigurable for research and training purposes, and can be used by non-expert operators (Cooke, Rivera, Shope & Caukwell, 1999; Gugerty, DeBoom, Walker & Bums, 1999; Martin, Lyon & Schreiber, 1998).
