An Experimental Study of Human Performance in Controlling Micro Air Vehicles in Turbulent Environment

This paper presents the results from a preliminary study of the remote pilot workload in the manual control of Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) in turbulence. Motion was constrained to the roll axis, and repeatable turbulence conditions were provided using a wind tunnel. Subjective and performance-based measurements of workload are reported across the population of 38 participants. Participants described the task as temporally and mentally demanding. Prior experience in the remote control of aircraft and regular use of computer games were identified as statistically significant factors contributing to small differences in performance. Further study exploring individual performance is needed.