Enhanced video camera feedback for teleoperated aerial refueling in unmanned aerial systems

The main goal of this paper is to design a visual aid system in order to facilitate Air-to-Air Refueling (AAR) from a tanker UAV to a receiver UAV. Particularly, the presented system can be used to the assist the receiver pilot during the AAR operation. In this context, both the telemetry of the two aircrafts and the nose-camera video from the receiver are used in order to design a Heads-Up Display (HUD) that overlays the visual feedback. In addition, the design of the HUD followed a Situation Awareness (SA) methodology focused on AAR operations. Finally, an experiment setup with a simulation environment and the HUD is proposed. Evaluation methodology was based on a NASA Task Load Index (TLX) questionnaire and a telemetry analysis. Results showed that the design of the HUD improved some parameters involved in the AAR mission success and reduced the mean workload experienced by the operator.