Monitor and Control Human-Computer Interface for Unmanned Surface Vehicle Fleets

Abstract

Nowadays, USVs (Unmanned Surface Vehicles) are an important research field in cyber-physical systems. They realise normal and new missions reducing costs and risks. Multiple applications have been identified as port surveillance, search & rescue or environmental monitoring. Due to particularities, USVs require adapted HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) for mission planning, surveillance for autonomous functioning and distant control. Sea4M project looks for a novel architecture to command and control USV fleets taking into account all commandment chain. This interface demands role-based adaptation and to respond to heterogeneous embedded systems. Also, users are not always familiar with nautical navigation so, Sea4M implements a user-friendly interface to smooth the learning curve. In this paper, we present the development of a novel HCI that responds to these needs and its validation process.