Development of an MUM-T Integrated Simulation Platform

Abstract

In this paper, we present a platform that can simulate Manned-UnManned Teaming (MUM-T) situations using various hardware and software being integrated. MUM-T, which combines unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with an existing manned vehicle (MV), is growing into an indispensable strategy thanks to enormous advantages it provides. In order to test this indispensable strategy which involves flight control algorithms being applied for various MUM-T situations, it is certainly needed to run and evaluate three-dimensional (3D) MV-UAVs combined simulations in realistic environments. However, there is no such simulator that enables such 3D MUM-T simulations as well as the Human Interface (HI) for both MV pilot and the mission manager at a ground station. In this paper, we propose an MUM-T integrated simulation platform (MUM-T ISP) that combines a single full-scale helicopter simulator (for MV simulation) and multiple Iris/PX4-Autopilot (for UAVs simulation), along with specially developed HI devices (TM and TV). Tactical Monitor (TM), one of the HI devices, is a touchable tablet which allows the MV pilot to interact with UAVs by simple actions (e.g. touching a button), and the other HI device called Tactical Viewer (TV) allows the mission manager at a ground station to closely monitor the MUM-T situation via realistic 3D displays of MV and UAVs. The proposed MUM-T ISP is tested on several mission scenarios and then evaluated by actual pilots and the mission manager based on sensible criteria. It is expected that the proposed simulation platform may serve well as a training tool for prospective MV pilots working with UAVs, and also as a research tool for flight engineers developing control algorithms that make MV and UAVs work together.