2025, Volume 31, Issue 2
THE ROLE OF AEROSPACE MEDICINE IN MANNED-UNMANNED TEAMING
RAFAŁ LEWKOWICZ1
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1Military Institute of Aviation Medicine
Autor korenspondencyjny: RAFAŁ LEWKOWICZ; Military Institute of Aviation Medicine; email: rlewkowicz@wiml.waw.pl
Streszczenie
Introduction: In recent years, military aviation has been undergoing rapid changes driven by the increased use of unmanned systems, advances in autonomy, and the growing scale of cooperation between manned and unmanned platforms. At the same time, the complexity of the information environment is increasing: data overload, operations under conditions of degraded situational awareness (including disruptions to command and control and satellite navigation), as well as growing risks of oversight errors and undue reliance on automation.
The aim of this study is to examine the role of aviation medicine in the rapidly evolving field of unmanned systems, with a particular focus on areas that require high cognitive performance, stress resilience, and reliable decision-making.
Methods: This article provides a narrative and synthetic review of the literature in the fields of aviation medicine, the human factor, sleep and fatigue science, the psychophysiology of workload, and human-autonomy teaming, supplemented by institutional reports.
Results and conclusions: It has been noted that, in addition to traditional environmental hazards (e.g., hypoxia), the importance of shift fatigue, cognitive load, and mental health is growing, including among remote crews. A layered model for monitoring a pilot’s psychophysical state has been proposed, based on data triangulation and combining subjective indicators and alertness tests with physiological and oculometric measurements, as well as mission context. The importance of minimally invasive, acceptable solutions with a clearly defined purpose and robust data protection measures was emphasized.
Słowa kluczowe
aviation medicine, military aviation, unmanned systems, human-autonomy teaming