Understanding Skills for Future Unmanned Aerial Systems

Requirements conflict as to the skills operators need to fly unmanned aerial systems (UASs). In some cases, different skills are required for the same system. In other cases, skill requirements change as the system matures. The lack of consensus leads to inefficiencies across selection and training programs and has a detrimental impact on operator proficiency. As new UASs are developed, it will be even harder to understand UAS skills. This paper examines the basic skills required for operating present day unmanned aerial systems (UASs) and establishes a finite number of categories for understanding the skills required for future unmanned systems. In addition, this paper examines basic skills required in analogous UA systems, such as aircraft, robots, and air traffic control, in order to elucidate new UAS skills and confirm the skill categories that should apply to future UASs. In this way, it is asserted that all UAS operators, regardless of the platform they operate, should possess skills that fall into five fundamental categories and that these categories are useful to provide commonality across UAS designs and help capture the skills for future UASs.

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