In an era where drones are becoming an indispensable tool in modern military operations, the U.S. Army is working to make the job of unmanned aerial system (UAS) operators not only more effective but safer and less cognitively overwhelming.
At the heart of this effort is an innovative concept called multi-sensory cueing, a technique that blends auditory and haptic (touch-based) cues to help operators manage their workload and remain alert.
The goal is simple but profound: reduce the risk of cognitive overload and inattentional blindness by delivering information through the body’s natural sensory pathways, enhancing awareness without increasing the burden on already overloaded eyes and minds.
“The idea is we can start to offload some of that information that we’re putting on the visual system onto these other systems,” explained Heath Jones, a research neuroscientist at the Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory.
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“It should not increase the cognitive burden as much as having them try to look at everything while flying the aircraft and make sure they know what’s outside of the aircraft as well.”
Cognitive overload is not a new issue for military aviators.
Like helicopter and fighter pilots, drone operators must constantly monitor a barrage of visual and auditory inputs.
The Army is now applying lessons learned from traditional aviation to UAS control stations, where multitasking and rapid information processing are critical.
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One technology drawing renewed attention is “3D audio,” also known as spatialized sound, which mimics real-world auditory cues by giving directionality to audio signals.
Instead of piping all communication into both ears, spatialized audio enables the operator to perceive the source of a sound as coming from a specific location — to the left, right, or behind them — just as they would in real life.
“You could tune that radio on your left and put it in a virtual space location to your left,” Jones said, describing how this can help drone operators differentiate between communication channels and focus more precisely.
Another promising innovation is the use of haptic feedback, such as shoulder pads or seat vibrations, which can alert an operator to positional changes or environmental threats without demanding their visual attention.
“If the phone is in your left pocket and it buzzes, you know it’s on the left side,” Jones explained. “Now, if you imagine taking eight phones and putting them on a belt around you. You could then buzz someone in the front, back, side, or the cardinal directions to give them some information.”
One example already developed is the Tactile Situation Awareness System (TSAS), a vest created by Army researcher Angus Rupert. It uses vibrations to cue pilots about aircraft orientation, prompting instinctive corrections without diverting visual focus.
The TSAS has shown significant potential in reducing aviation mishaps: between 1992 and 2011, 63 fatalities and over $700 million in damages could have potentially been avoided had this vest been in use, according to a study cited in Flightfax.
This summer, the Army plans to demonstrate multi-sensory cueing at a UAS summit at Fort Novosel, Alabama. Bethany Ranes, a sensory scientist with the Army’s human performance group, said the technology is already integrated into several helicopter training simulators and could soon be adopted for drones.
“The reason we’re doing the demo in August is because it’s a ready-to-deploy technology that they can pop right in and start to use with the UAS operators in a variety of different kinds of training environments,” Ranes said.
The broader vision is to transform drone operator roles from passive observation to active decision-making.
Traditionally, these jobs have been marked by long periods of inactivity punctuated by moments of urgent action — a mismatch in cognitive load that can lead to errors.
“A lot of the time, they’re just sitting there,” Ranes said.
“The fancy schmancy way that we refer to that in our work is there’s a mismatch in cognitive load — where we have non-optimized transitions from low workload to high workload, which just means you’re bored out of your gourd for a really long time, but then suddenly you have to act very quickly and decisively.”
The Army’s research is not just about bells and whistles.
The stakes are high.
In several tragic cases, pilots involved in nighttime training missions off the coast of Hawaii and Florida experienced fatal crashes due to spatial disorientation — a condition where one loses the sense of position and movement relative to the Earth.
“There’s nothing you can see outside. It’s just pitch black,” said Jones.
“They didn’t even realize that they were in as bad a shape as they were.”
Despite promising developments in both audio and haptic technology, adoption across the military remains uneven. Legacy systems, budget constraints, and a slow-moving acquisition process can hamper integration.
“I think the thing that’s going to move it faster are unfortunate accidents that occur that could have been prevented with technology such as this,” Jones admitted, referencing a recent fatal crash above the Potomac.
Ultimately, the hope is that multi-sensory cueing will become a standard part of the Army’s modernization toolkit — helping both manned and unmanned aircraft operators maintain situational awareness, make faster decisions, and avoid deadly mistakes. As Jones put it:
“You don’t really need to think about these cues as much. You just need to know what they mean and what to do after you feel them.”
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