Military-technical and information-program support in training operators of unmanned aerial vehicles.

The notions of the place, role and missions performed by unmanned aircraft in modern combat operations have appreciably changed over recent 10 to 15 years. Analysis of numerous mass media publications on military-technical and other matters shows that this has been mainly caused by the fact that unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have a number of advantages over manned aerial vehicles. (1) Without listing these advantages here, let us only note that the building of UAVs is now one of the most intensively developing branches of the aviation industry in many countries, including Russia, of course. This also stimulates interest in how to guarantee their requisite effectiveness.

It should be stressed here first of all that the current growth in the production and use of UAVs has been caused to a considerable extent by what has been their largely successful employment in the armed conflicts in many regions, beginning with the war in Vietnam. At the same time, the body of combat experience gained to date in the use of computerized UAVs (in Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Iraq) indicates that their effectiveness under a number of situations proves to be less than has been expected. We should stress in this connection that, despite the growing computerization of UAVs, the so-called human factor remains a very important cause of their insufficient effectiveness. One of the further most important causes is the insufficient training of those who operate UAVs. They are, above all, members of the operational and technical personnel (OTP) who man ground remote control centers (GRCCs), of mobile launchers (MLs) and hardware maintenance and repair facilities (HMRFs). This points to the need to devise methods and techniques that could guarantee the requisite quality of performance of standard computerized vehicles. One promising course of action to raise the effectiveness of such UAVs lies in creating, on the basis of modern information technologies, computer-assisted training facilities (CATFs) and using them for occupational training.

Characterizing the current position with regard to the creation and the employment of CATFs for training military specialists for the operation of computerized pieces of military weapons and equipment (MWE), it should be noted that there are at the moment many computer-assisted trainers based on the latest advances in the field of virtual reality and multimedia technology. (2) These trainers guarantee a very high standard of simulating UAVs and make it possible to give specialists sufficient training at appreciably lower costs than with the use of actual vehicles.

We propose an original approach to building a virtual multimedia computer-assisted trainer (3) to train operators of sophisticated automated control systems operating in conditions of various disturbances. Provided with appropriate software, this trainer is guaranteed to provide trainees with theoretical knowledge and practical skills to perform the following main missions: to evaluate tactical, electronic and other types of situation within the range of UAVs; compile fight plans and operation programs; control the flight in all the phases of UAV operation.

Besides, members of the UAV OTP should be trained in the deployment on location the GRCCs, MLs and HMRFs that go with the UAVs; enter fight plans in UAVs on-board computers, launch them with MLs; refine the situation of the flight; assess the correspondence of real data from on-board telemetry assets with their flight paths built into the program; make timely adjustments to their flight paths and flight plans; change their control from computer mode to automated or manual mode and back; if need be, formulate and issue commands to concrete UAVs to follow alternative flight plans; diagnose with the help of HMRFs technical conditions of the apparatus being used; perform some other support or auxiliary functions. It should be noted that the above list of tasks and functions to be mastered by the personnel can be expanded or altered by making appropriate adjustments to the software.

The proposed computer trainer includes PC-based workstations for the instructor and the trainees, blocks of software control, input and output of data, program simulation of controlled objects and disturbing effects, formulation and reproduction of video, audio and multimedia information, control of the trainees' actions, display of collective-use information, as well as a number of blocks of memory, distribution of codes, formulation of controlling pulses and other program-driven elements.

Without going into detail of the peculiarities of structure and operation of the above functional and structural elements of this computer-assisted trainer and links between them, we will only note that they enable a number of interconnected modes and sub-modes of operation where the most important of them are the modes of individual and collective training.

The possibility to assess and control the training process in the main modes of operation of this proposed trainer are made possible by an open system of quality of individual and collective training. This system is, in particular, comprised of timeliness (speed), correctness (infallibility) and the overall importance of timely and correct decisions made by the trainees in performing individual or collective tasks under simulated situations as they follow certain scenarios in corresponding modes of operation of the trainer.

This trainer ensures high-quality training of UAV operators owing to the open nature of its software, the possibility to configure it in accordance with the structure and performance characteristics of some or other UAV. This openness is achieved through designing standardized and multifunctional trainers, among which is the trainer we are describing here, and the use of an organized number of exchangeable program modules (EPMs). An effective form of organizing them in this manner is an open-ended EPM library that can be added to if need be. The library makes it possible to create and run stand-alone (used in auditoriums) and built into computerized workstations of corresponding computerized MWE of CATF. EPM libraries for distributed computerized trainers can be compiled and used in training military specialists in practically any type of occupational activity.

Software included in such libraries should meet certain requirements. In respect to the trainer we deal with, the most important of these requirements consist in enabling the following: to process a priori data about the real conditions of employing the given UAV, its structure and operation under these conditions; transform these data into input and controlling data on the basis of simulating corresponding external, with regard to the UAV, and internal processes under normal, abnormal and emergency situations; put on the trainees' displays appropriate information models necessary for the UAV's operational and technical personnel to perform their functions; to accumulate registered data related to speed, accuracy and other characteristics of the trainees, corresponding procedures of data processing, control and other results of UAV simulation; determine the values of practically all program-enabled indicators of individual or collective proficiency of the trainees; control current proficiency and forecast its further improvement; make and implement decisions aimed at upgrading the training processes; keep track of these processes and display (document) the results.

The setting up and using of software libraries that meet these requirements, as well as of corresponding data bases, which are placed in the mentioned information-carrying media, necessary for a coordinated use of mutually complementary standby and built-in trainers, is the essential prerequisite for an effective training of UAV operators. In the final analysis, this not only appreciably upgrades the reliability, survivability and antijam protection of their automated control systems but also increases the effectiveness of UAVs' employment.

Summing up what is stated above, we should note that the proposed versions of computerized trainer and software for training UAV specialists make it possible to create and implement the necessary prerequisites for attaining the required standards of their occupational proficiency through the use of multimedia technology and elements of virtual reality and the appropriate software.

NOTES:

1. V. Kabanov, S. Kobrusev, "Preimushchestva bespilotnykh aviatsionnykh kompleksov," Voennyy parad, No. 4 (52), 2002, pp. 20-21.

2. "Takticheskiy trenazher boya s ispolzovaniyem razlichnykh vidov vooruzheniya," PM-CATT/; "Virtualnyy trenazher samoleta," Russian Federation Patent No. 2191432 of 20.10.2002.

3. "Virtualnyy multimediynyy trenazher kollektiva operatorov sistemy upravleniya dinamicheskimi ob'ektami," in: A.V. Podluzhnyy, M.A. Savchenko, M.A. Chursin et al., Resheniye ot 22.04.2004 g. o vydache patenta Rossiyskoy Federatsii na izobreteniye po zayavke No. 2003117063 s prioritetom ot 10.06.2003 g.

Col. B.V. ILLARIONOV

Doctor of Technical Sciences

Col. A.G. FADIN (Res.)

Candidate of Technical Sciences

Sr. Lt. A.V. PODLUZHNYI

Sr. Lt. M.A. SAVCHENKO