Increasing situation awareness in USAR human-robot teams by enhancing the user interface

Abstract

Situation awareness is one of the key factors in the success of Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) missions. Investigated in this paper are several factors that contribute to difficult USAR situations, and in what way these problems can be solved. In the TRADR project, USAR team members are assisted by a tactical display system (TDS). This paper investigates ways to improve the TDS to increase situation awareness while maintaining a manageable level of cognitive load. Results show that performance is higher with the enhanced user interface and users rate the new features positively, but additional research is needed to map the full benefits to situation awareness.