Design and Evaluation of a Ground Control Station-Embedded Training Simulator for Unmanned Aerial Systems

To operate unmanned air vehicles(UAVs) effectively in diverse military missions, operators have to be sufficiently trained in UAV operation procedures. The education and training for UAV operation are generally conducted at dedicated training facilities. Recently, UAV operation scenarios became complex because of the increased number of airborne components and payloads, the operation based on many-to-many connections between ground control stations(GCSs) and UAVs, and the diversification of military UAV applications. Training for complex UAV operation scenarios needs additional equipment and personnel as well as larger training spaces, resulting in a substantial increase in training costs. In this paper, to reduce the training costs, we design a GCS-embedded training simulator that enables operators to be trained on various mission scenarios within deployed GCSs. Then, we evaluate the training coverage and levels provided by our training simulator based on North Atlantic Treaty Organization standards, and analyze the cost efficiency in terms of equipment and manpower.