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AIDL's projects in the Defence and Aviation domains are described below.
Last Updated: April 24, 2020
Duration: Dec 2018 - May 2019
In this project, we collaborated with General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada and conducted a literature review on human operators controlling multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and produced a whitepaper outlining tools and methods to capture and evaluate the complexity of future UAV systems.
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Duration: Feb 2017 - May 2019
In collaboration with Defence Research and Development Canada, we explored the impact of automated systems on navy crew performance during safety-critical military missions in multiple experimental studies.
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Duration: January 2017-December 2019
Today's military personnel work with an increasing array of algorithmic and intelligent tools. This project is exploring how teams interact with different automation levels of sensor data fusion technologies. Do the new technologies change workload and how? Does it change communication within the team? Situation awareness?
Duration: May 2010 - December 2010
In order to improve operational effectiveness for the Canadian Forces (CF), the Joint Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Surveillance Target Acquisition System (JUSTAS) project is acquiring a medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV). In support of the JUSTAS project, Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) – Toronto in association with the Advanced Interface Design Lab at the University of Waterloo, are investigating strategies for managing massive information exchange among UAV operators. One strategy to is to develop intelligent adaptive interfaces (IAI) that dynamically manage information display and control characteristics based on operator mental state or workload through assessing operators' physiological indexes by using Electroencephalography (EEG) and Electrocardiography (ECG) technologies. This project focuses on evaluating EEG and ECG technologies, lessons learned on the use of these technologies, and their associated implications in experimental research. Suggestions are made for the development of a research program for a study to enhance the IAI design.
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Duration: 2006 - 2007
Over the last few decades, sonar technology has improved significantly in sensors and processing techniques; however, there has been little changes in the displays for sonar data in the military since World War I. This project focuses on the air-borne sonobuoy system, applying EID to the analysis and design of their interface. Two seperate domains were modeled: the domain of sonobuoy management and the domain of tactical situation awareness. Design efforts were made based on the information requirements extracted from these domains.
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Duration: 2003 - 2005
This project used a form of cognitive task analysis called work domain analysis to develop a constraint based model of the environment that armoured tanks must manoeuver. The environment model was combined with artificial intelligence techniques to create a reasonably robust simulation of tank behaviour. The goal was to have the tank simulate flexible human decision making and proof of concept evaluations demonstrated that simulation was reasonable.
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Duration: 2002 - 2004
This project demonstrated how very simple graphic information support for a common collision avoidance system (the TCAS system) can improve how well people can avoid aircraft collisions. The graphic support was based on visualizations of time and distance of approaching aircraft. This project also investigated the application of WDA to determine how it can be used to model the aircraft collision domain.
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Duration: 2002 - 2003
This project examined two display concepts, the Highway in the Sky (HITS) display and advanced display concepts in combination. The HITS display provides a tunnel that pilots can fly through, thereby maintaining their altitude and position more accurately. The weakness of the HITS display is that pilots can lose their sense of time in the tunnel and get off track with their flight progress. In this project, advanced display concepts to show speed time and distance were developed to supplement the HITS display. Research showed that the additional display concepts improved flying performance, particularly in windy conditions.
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The University of Waterloo acknowledges that much of our work takes place on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is centralized within our Office of Indigenous Relations.