The Air Force commissioned the development of GA-ASI’s new pilot and sensor operator’s station in 2006, and GA-ASI brought the NIAR Human Factors Lab on board to help.
“The Predator and MQ-9 Reaper UAS are used heavily by the Air Force for surveillance and attacking targets,” said Dr. Alex Chaparro, director of the Human Factors Lab. “Over time, GA-ASI embarked on a company-funded program to improve the functionality and ease of operation of the many control functions in the GCS."
"As the capabilities of the system increased, they kept adding more things, and now the operator has multiple keyboards, multiple input devices and multiple displays to monitor, which increased operator workload," he said. "The Air Force was interested in having a new design that was going to make the interface easier to use and make the physical design better for the operators.”
Following 14 months of Internal Research and Development (IRAD) redesign by GA-ASI and NIAR, the station was successfully demonstrated last July during the flight of a mission-configured MQ-1 Predator UAS at GA-ASI’s Gray Butte Flight Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif.
The Air Force offered GA-ASI the contract to complete product development during the next 19 months.
The Advanced Cockpit represents state-of-the-art hardware and software technology offering the following features and benefits:
Can be retrofitted into the GCS's of all GA-ASI customers including the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Department of
Homeland Security or NASA fixed facility and fielded GCS shelters.
Based on STANAG 4586 architecture, providing interoperability across various UAS.
Designed to increase situational awareness, greatly reduce operator workload by providing intuitive interfaces, make potentially hazardous situations easier to identify and generally improve the decision-making process.
“The Advanced Cockpit GCS sets the standard with intuitive touch-screen technology, superior ergonomic design, and remarkable wide-screen video presentations that dramatically expand all visual cues provided to the pilot and sensor operator,” said Thomas J. Cassidy Jr., president of the GA-ASI Aircraft Systems Group.”
“With GA-ASI-produced aircraft now flying more than 15,000 flight hours per month, the proven Advanced Cockpit GCS will provide operators with improved situational awareness, reduced pilot workload, and the edge needed to ensure continued success in combat supporting our troops.”
