Identifying Human Factors Research for Unmanned Aircraft Systems and Advanced Air Mobility
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Summary
This paper outlines a strategic framework for identifying human factors (HF) research needs necessary for the safe integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) into civil airspace. The authors argue that while much existing HF guidance from conventional aviation remains applicable, UAS and AAM introduce unique operational characteristics that create specific knowledge gaps. To address these, the paper proposes three criteria for identifying research priorities: considerations derived from the defining characteristics of UAS/AAM, areas where existing guidance is insufficient or inapplicable, and domains where current research is inadequate to inform new standards. The authors categorize HF research needs into eight distinct topic areas. First, sustained low-altitude operations introduce challenges regarding reduced response times, complex traffic and terrain avoidance amidst diverse aircraft types, and the interpretation of localized "microweather" data. Second, the loss of natural sensing in remote operations removes critical vestibular, haptic, and visual cues available to onboard pilots, requiring new mitigation strategies. Third, novel aircraft designs, such as electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, present unique control and display requirements, particularly regarding battery management and the inability to perform low-level manual control. Fourth, novel operations, including swarm control and shielded flights near structures, demand new procedures for decision-making and situational awareness. Further research areas focus on communication and team dynamics. Link management and performance are critical due to the reliance on wireless data links, which introduce risks of latency, signal loss, and voice communication delays that can disrupt air traffic coordination. Distributed pilot teams face challenges in control handoffs between remote stations and in managing multi-aircraft control, where task switching and crew resource management become complex. Finally, increased automation, while enabling these operations, introduces new failure modes and requires careful design to ensure humans retain necessary situational awareness and skills. The paper concludes that targeted HF research in these areas is essential to develop effective best practices, standards, and regulations for the future aviation ecosystem.
Key finding
The paper identifies eight specific human factors research domains—such as loss of natural sensing, link management, and distributed pilot teams—that are uniquely critical for UAS and AAM integration and are not adequately addressed by existing conventional aviation guidance.
Methodology
review
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (6 acquisition events logged).
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | rosap | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-23 |
| archive | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| chunk | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| embed | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-02 |
| enrich | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 24 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
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