UMAST: A Web-Based Architecture for Modeling Future Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

The area of uninhabited aerial vehicles is receiving increasing attention with the associated technologi cal advances in communication, computing and elec tronic infrastructure. Uninhabited aerial vehicles are defined as aircraft without the on-board presence of pilot or aircrew. The role of humans is primarily one of supervisory control from remote locations. Issues such as systematic approaches to allocating functions between humans and automation, and coordination between remote operators and intelligent controls in the uninhabited vehicles under realistic scenarios are important problems. There is a need for an interactive modeling and simulator environment to support analy sis of human/system issues in uninhabited air vehicles. This article describes Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles Modeling and Analysis Simulator Testbed (UMAST), a Web-based modeling and simulation architecture, useful to emulate characteristics of uninhabited aerial vehicles for studying human/system interaction. The architecture, implemented in Java, is extensible and facilitates concurrent, multi-user interactive simula tions through a Web browser with high-fidelity user interfaces. This paper outlines the architectural de sign, implementation, and application of UMAST in the context of a prototypical military mission.