Date posted: 11/01/2006*

On Oct. 31, at the Shephard UV North America 2006 conference in Tysons Corner, Va., Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems (IIS) unveiled the Raytheon Universal Control System (UCS). This system is a first-of-its-kind unmanned aerial system (UAS) “cockpit” intended to increase operator awareness and efficiency while providing the ability to control multiple unmanned aircraft, reduce accidents, improve training and decrease costs.

Mark Bigham, director of Business Development for Raytheon’s IIS business, stressed the importance of the UCS. “We took the best-of-breed technologies from the gaming industry and coupled them with 35 years of Raytheon UAS expertise to develop a state-of-the-art universal cockpit for the operator,” said Bigham. “We broke down the issues of the operators and constructed a system built entirely around them, rather than building the system around the air vehicle first without input from the operators.”

UCS Helps Eliminate Human Error
A 2004 Federal Aviation Administration study titled “A Summary of Unmanned Aircraft Accident/Incident Data: Human Factors Implications,” states that “a common theme across many of the mishaps reported involved a problem with the command interface to the system.” The study also noted that “in the systems analyzed, human factors issues were present in 21 percent (Shadow) to 67 percent (Predator) of the accidents … [these] numbers suggest there is room for improvement if specific human factors issues can be identified and addressed.”

Raytheon designed and developed the UCS to address these human factors issues. For years, UAS ground systems have been developed using a platform-down approach. Raytheon decided to change that practice, and set out on a mission to design a next-generation ground system operational environment, which became the UCS.

The UCS addresses operator ergonomic concerns to help them perform their jobs more effectively. By helping operators stay more focused on their missions, UCS also provides a safer work environment. The system is designed to be more configurable by operators, providing the option to stand or sit in addition to offering flexibility in controlling multiple functions. The UCS system is also capable of controlling multiple dissimilar UAS systems simultaneously, using software designed and developed by Raytheon.

IIS’ Bigham added that Raytheon is confident UCS will improve operator performance statistics presented in the FAA study, and that the company looks forward to analyzing user results.

Learn more about the Raytheon UCS.

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