Unmanned System Autonomy , Situation Awareness , and System Safety

The future will provide an increasing number of autonomous unmanned systems; e.g. weapons and vehicles, to be deployed by the nation’s military. There are a large number of safety issues that such systems will pose, one such safety concern is the ability of the autonomous unmanned system to accurately identify environmental elements and make the appropriate decisions based upon the situation. Human’s have an innate ability to interpret the environment and determine the appropriate action to take in order to ensure mission success while minimizing the danger to friendly forces and innocent bystanders. Current autonomous systems do not have capabilities at the same level as their human counter-parts, thus raising concern regarding their ability to ensure safety and still be effective. This paper discusses how current autonomy is insufficient to guarantee system safety and how incorporating the concept of situation awareness into the unmanned system can improve safety.