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At least 271 records · Page 15

Simulation study of traffic-sensor noise effects on utilization of traffic situation display for self-spacing task

The effect of traffic sensor noise on the ability of a pilot to perform an intrail spacing task was determined. The tests were conducted in a fixed base cockpit simulator configured as a current generation transport aircraft, with an electronic traffic display provided in the weather radarscope location. The true positions of the traffic were perturbed in both relative range and azimuth by random errors to simulate traffic sensor noise associated with an onboard sensor. The evaluation task involved simulated instrument approaches into a terminal area while maintaining self separation on a lead aircraft. Separation performance data and pilot subjective ratings and comments were obtained. The results of the separation data indicate that displayed traffic position errors, having standard deviation values up to 0.3-n.mi. range and 8 deg azimuth, had negligible effect on the spacing performance achieved by the pilots. Speed profiles of the lead aircraft, display of the lead aircraft groundspeed, and individual pilot techniques were found to significantly affect the mean spacing performance.

Williams, D. H.↗

SATS HVO Concept Validation Experiment

A human-in-the-loop simulation experiment was conducted at the NASA Langley Research Center s (LaRC) Air Traffic Operations Lab (ATOL) in an effort to comprehensively validate tools and procedures intended to enable the Small Aircraft Transportation System, Higher Volume Operations (SATS HVO) concept of operations. The SATS HVO procedures were developed to increase the rate of operations at non-towered, non-radar airports in near all-weather conditions. A key element of the design is the establishment of a volume of airspace around designated airports where pilots accept responsibility for self-separation. Flights operating at these airports, are given approach sequencing information computed by a ground based automated system. The SATS HVO validation experiment was conducted in the ATOL during the spring of 2004 in order to determine if a pilot can safely and proficiently fly an airplane while performing SATS HVO procedures. Comparative measures of flight path error, perceived workload and situation awareness were obtained for two types of scenarios. Baseline scenarios were representative of today s system utilizing procedure separation, where air traffic control grants one approach or departure clearance at a time. SATS HVO scenarios represented approaches and departure procedures as described in the SATS HVO concept of operations. Results from the experiment indicate that low time pilots were able to fly SATS HVO procedures and maintain self-separation as safely and proficiently as flying today's procedures.

Consiglio, Maria↗

A study of stall deterrent systems for general aviation aircraft

Stall deterrent concepts for general aviation aircraft have been investigated using simulation studies and flight test experiments. It was found that the simulator was suitable for the development of deterrent system concepts, but the simulator was unacceptable for pilot evaluation of system effectiveness under typical stall/spin accident conditions. A Cessna 319 was outfitted with sensors, servoactuators, and analog control logic necessary to investigate a wide range of stall deterrent systems. It was found that an acoustic stall sensor and an error control law were sufficient for stall deterrence. The pitch intervention control system prevented aircraft stall for all aircraft configurations and pilot inputs. The variable up elevator stop concept was found to be effective for slow decelerations to aircraft stall. The stall deterrent systems were evaluated by four professional pilots and three low time pilots.

Bennett, A. G.↗

A review of in-flight emergencies in the ASRS data base

A series of 154 in-flight emergencies as reported to the Aviation Safety Reporting System are described. The various types of emergencies are examined and an attempt is made to determine the human errors and other factors associated with each incident, as well as the measures taken to resolve the emergency. It is concluded that nearly one half of those emergencies reported were related to failure or malfunction of aircraft subsystems. Of all the emergencies, nearly one quarter were associated with power plant failure. Other frequently encountered emergency types are associated with operation in instrument meteorological conditions without appropriate clearance or qualification, and with low fuel state situations. Human error is prominently featured in many of the incidents, appearing in the actions of pilots and air traffic controllers.

Porter, R. F.↗

Evaluation of a voice recognition system for the MOTAS pseudo pilot station function

The Langley Research Center has undertaken a technology development activity to provide a capability, the mission oriented terminal area simulation (MOTAS), wherein terminal area and aircraft systems studies can be performed. An experiment was conducted to evaluate state-of-the-art voice recognition technology and specifically, the Threshold 600 voice recognition system to serve as an aircraft control input device for the MOTAS pseudo pilot station function. The results of the experiment using ten subjects showed a recognition error of 3.67 percent for a 48-word vocabulary tested against a programmed vocabulary of 103 words. After the ten subjects retrained the Threshold 600 system for the words which were misrecognized or rejected, the recognition error decreased to 1.96 percent. The rejection rates for both cases were less than 0.70 percent. Based on the results of the experiment, voice recognition technology and specifically the Threshold 600 voice recognition system were chosen to fulfill this MOTAS function.

Houck, J. A.↗

Performance of concatenated Reed-Solomon trellis-coded modulation over Rician fading channels

A concatenated coding scheme for providing very reliable data over mobile-satellite channels at power levels similar to those used for vocoded speech is described. The outer code is a shorter Reed-Solomon code which provides error detection as well as error correction capabilities. The inner code is a 1-D 8-state trellis code applied independently to both the inphase and quadrature channels. To achieve the full error correction potential of this inner code, the code symbols are multiplexed with a pilot sequence which is used to provide dynamic channel estimation and coherent detection. The implementation structure of this scheme is discussed and its performance is estimated.

Moher, Michael L.↗

Cultural Variability in Crew Discourse

Four studies were conducted to determine features of effective crew communication in response to errors during flight. Study One examined whether US captains and first officers use different communication strategies to correct errors and problems on the flight deck, and whether their communications are affected by the two situation variables, level of risk and degree of face-threat involved in challenging an error. Study Two was the cross-cultural extension of Study One and involved pilots from three European countries. Study Three compared communication strategies of female and male air carrier pilots who were matched in terms of years and type of aircraft experience. The final study assessed the effectiveness of the communication strategies observed in Study One.

Fischer, Ute↗

Experiment Description and Results for Arrival Operations Using Interval Management with Spacing to Parallel Dependent Runways (IMSPiDR)

The predicted increase in the number of commercial aircraft operations creates a need for improved operational efficiency. Two areas believed to offer increases in aircraft efficiency are optimized profile descents and dependent parallel runway operations. Using Flight deck Interval Management (FIM) software and procedures during these operations, flight crews can achieve by the runway threshold an interval assigned by air traffic control (ATC) behind the preceding aircraft that maximizes runway throughput while minimizing additional fuel consumption and pilot workload. This document describes an experiment where 24 pilots flew arrivals into the Dallas Fort-Worth terminal environment using one of three simulators at NASA?s Langley Research Center. Results indicate that pilots delivered their aircraft to the runway threshold within +/- 3.5 seconds of their assigned time interval, and reported low workload levels. In general, pilots found the FIM concept, procedures, speeds, and interface acceptable. Analysis of the time error and FIM speed changes as a function of arrival stream position suggest the spacing algorithm generates stable behavior while in the presence of continuous (wind) or impulse (offset) error. Concerns reported included multiple speed changes within a short time period, and an airspeed increase followed shortly by an airspeed decrease.

Baxley, Brian T.↗

Digitizing Named Entities Found Within Letters of Agreement

Letters of Agreement (LOAs) are text-based air traffic control documents that contain procedures and actions agreed upon by the different parties, typically two or more FAA facilities, that are subject to an agreement. The documents contain among other things generic constraints, which are explicit and implicit combinations of procedures that limit a flight’s trajectory and affects pilot actions. For example, a controller may be required, to assign a specific altitude to an aircraft crossing the boundary between two airspaces. Although LOA generic constraints directly impact the trajectory of an aircraft, they are not currently available in a digital form that can be used for (or directly ingested into automated) flight planning. Instead, the constraints are manually input into an onboard or ground based system. LOA documents are primarily stored at a controlling facility and the generic constraints are implemented by experienced air traffic controllers and pilots primarily using voice instructions. This increases the workload of the controllers, likelihood of error (e.g., due to noisy communication) and makes it impractical for implementation with unmanned aircraft. Therefore, steps must be taken to make existing constraints machine interpretable to enable e.g., automated handoffs which in turn would reduce controller workload. With recent advances in natural language processing, especially the rise in digitization of text documents (e.g., medical documents) and automated extraction of information therein, it is now possible to extract flight specific constraints from LOAs. The goal of this work is to digitize named entities through a combination of natural language processing tasks: named entity disambiguation, toponym resolution, and numeric parsing to extract general constraint components contained within LOAs, herein referred to as Entity Enhancement (EE). Starting with a small list of named entities (e.g., ARTCC, Tower, Altitude and Speed), EE can extract the named entities while simultaneously converting the string-based output into a digital format using an ensemble of processes like rule-based gazetteers and syntactic-lexical patterns. The digital format contains a diverse set of information based on the entity label in question, ranging from standardized facility names to units of measure (e.g., feet) and other numeric information. Upon validating our approach using a truth dataset, we show an overall F1-Score of 0.71 for the extraction process. Looking beyond entity enhancement, we are also working towards the goal of completely digitizing the general constraints by performing EE and fitting them into a standardized exchange model (XM) such as the Aeronautical Information Exchange Model (AIXM). This will allow for easy distribution and dissemination of LOA constraints to air users, better searchability within documents, and enable ingestion into automated flight planning. Finally, we show a preliminary version of the proposed XM architecture and demonstrate how the model can be populated from the EE output.

Stephen S. B. Clarke↗

Commercial Flight Crew Decision-Making during Low-Visibility Approach Operations Using Fused Synthetic/Enhanced Vision Systems

NASA is investigating revolutionary crew-vehicle interface technologies that strive to proactively overcome aircraft safety barriers that would otherwise constrain the full realization of the next-generation air transportation system. A fixed-based piloted simulation experiment was conducted to evaluate the complementary use of Synthetic and Enhanced Vision technologies. Specific focus was placed on new techniques for integration and/or fusion of Enhanced and Synthetic Vision and its impact within a two-crew flight deck on the crew's decision-making process during low-visibility approach and landing operations. Overall, the experimental data showed that significant improvements in situation awareness, without concomitant increases in workload and display clutter, could be provided by the integration and/or fusion of synthetic and enhanced vision technologies for the pilot-flying and the pilot-not-flying. During non-normal operations, the ability of the crew to handle substantial navigational errors and runway incursions were neither improved nor adversely impacted by the display concepts. The addition of Enhanced Vision may not, unto itself, provide an improvement in runway incursion detection without being specifically tailored for this application. Existing enhanced vision system procedures were effectively used in the crew decision-making process during approach and missed approach operations but having to forcibly transition from an excellent FLIR image to natural vision by 100 ft above field level was awkward for the pilot-flying.

Kramer, Lynda J.↗

Human factors of advanced technology (glass cockpit) transport aircraft

A three-year study of airline crews at two U.S. airlines who were flying an advanced technology aircraft, the Boeing 757 is discussed. The opinions and experiences of these pilots as they view the advanced, automated features of this aircraft, and contrast them with previous models they have flown are discussed. Training for advanced automation; (2) cockpit errors and error reduction; (3) management of cockpit workload; and (4) general attitudes toward cockpit automation are emphasized. The limitations of the air traffic control (ATC) system on the ability to utilize the advanced features of the new aircraft are discussed. In general the pilots are enthusiastic about flying an advanced technology aircraft, but they express mixed feelings about the impact of automation on workload, crew errors, and ability to manage the flight.

Wiener, Earl L.↗

Validation of Minimum Display Requirements for a UAS Detect and Avoid System

The full integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System (NAS), a prerequisite for enabling a broad range of public and commercial UAS operations, presents several technical challenges to UAS developers, operators and regulators. A primary barrier is the inability for UAS pilots (situated at a ground control station, or GCS) to comply with Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations sections 91.111 and 91.113, which require pilots to “see and avoid” other aircraft in order to maintain well clear. UAS pilots’ removal from the flight deck of the aircraft necessitates the development of a UAS-specific system for detecting nearby traffic and displaying traffic information to the pilot to support their ability to maintain an objectively defined “DAA well clear” threshold from other aircraft. This new UAS-specific function of remaining DAA well clear is called traffic avoidance. The resulting Detect and Avoid (DAA) system, however, will be subject to a collection of requirements that manufacturers will be obligated to meet in order to certify their equipment. RTCA Special Committee 228 (SC-228), a consortium of representatives from government, industry and academia, is responsible for developing and documenting the Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) for UAS DAA systems. The present study is the final in a series of human-in-the-loop (HITL) experiments designed to explore and test the various display and alerting requirements being incorporated into the DAA MOPS. Whereas the prior DAA HITLs examined a wide variety of DAA display features and concepts, the current experiment aims to validate the latest minimum display requirements for Phase 1 of the DAA MOPS. Rather than test different display concepts, this study tests two configurations of a MOPS-compatible DAA display: a version that is integrated into the primary navigation and control display of the GCS and a version that is physically separated from the primary display. This manipulation tests the draft minimum requirement that allows the DAA traffic display to be a separate, or standalone, configuration. This type of configuration is a more achievable near-term technology solution since it does not stipulate additional certification or integration requirements on UAS manufacturers. However, a standalone display configuration has the potential to result in pilot performance issues resulting from the cognitive costs of switching between the primary DAA display and the primary navigation and control display. This configuration is also particularly susceptible to errors if the displays are in different orientations (e.g., north-up versus track-up). Both the integrated and standalone display configurations were presented to 16 active UAS pilots in a medium-fidelity simulation, which included confederate air traffic controllers and pseudo pilots operating simulated manned traffic. Pilots were tasked with navigating two different mission routes while maintaining DAA well clear with scripted conflicts. Pilot response times (i.e., measured response) and ability to remain DAA well clear are reported. Primary results indicate that both display configurations resulted in favorable response times and well clear rates. While there were clear trends of pilots objectively performing better in the integrated display condition, with several measured response metrics reaching statistical significance, the differences between the two displays were typically moderate. While the primary variable of DAA display location did not have an especially large impact on pilot performance on its own, when examined alongside the type of DAA threat the pilot was facing (a caution-level versus a warning-level alert), the response time benefits associated with the integrated display were amplified. The implications of these American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 2 results on the Phase 1 DAA MOPS and the connection of this data to previous studies is also discussed.

detect and avoid↗

Simulation and flight studies of an approach profile indicator for VTOL aircraft

Simulation and flight investigations were conducted by using a method of providing supplementary information to the pilot in conjunction with a closed-circuit-television display during a VTOL instrument final approach including deceleration and hover. The supplementary information included range, cross range, ground speed, altitude, and rate-of-climb error and was displayed on an instrument called an approach profile indicator. The display was arranged to provide both quasi-command and situation information. Pilot comments indicated that the approach-profile-indicator display concept in conjunction with the closed-circuit television resulted in a decreased pilot workload and an increase in pilot confidence. Also, the results indicated that the approach profile repeatability was significantly improved because of the ground-speed and altitude information provided on the approach profile indicator.

Moen, G. C.↗

Advanced automated glass cockpit certification: Being wary of human factors

This paper presents some facets of the French experience with human factors in the process of certification of advanced automated cockpits. Three types of difficulties are described: first, the difficulties concerning the hotly debated concept of human error and its non-linear relationship to risk of accident; a typology of errors to be taken into account in the certification process is put forward to respond to this issue. Next, the difficulties connected to the basically gradual and evolving nature of pilot expertise on a given type of aircraft, which contrasts with the immediate and definitive style of certifying systems. The last difficulties to be considered are those related to the goals of certification itself on these new aircraft and the status of findings from human factor analyses (in particular, what should be done with disappointing results, how much can the changes induced by human factors investigation economically affect aircraft design, how many errors do we need to accumulate before we revise the system, what should be remedied when human factor problems are discovered at the certification stage: the machine? pilot training? the rules? or everything?). The growth of advanced-automated glass cockpits has forced the international aeronautical community to pay more attention to human factors during the design phase, the certification phase and pilot training. The recent creation of a human factor desk at the DGAC-SFACT (Official French services) is a direct consequence of this. The paper is divided into three parts. Part one debates human error and its relationship with system design and accident risk. Part two describes difficulties connected to the basically gradual and evolving nature of pilot expertise on a given type of aircraft, which contrasts with the immediate and definitive style of certifying systems. Part three focuses on concrete outcomes of human factors for certification purposes.

Amalberti, Rene↗

Aircraft automation - The problem of the pilot interface

In recent years, aviation has been experiencing a rapid growth. This growth is expected to continue, and aircraft operations in the IFR (instrument flight rules) environment, for example, are predicted to increase dramatically in the next 10 to 12 years. However, it has been found the IFR accidents are increasing at about the same rate as IFR operations, because an associated high workload can lead to human error. For this reason, NASA and others are exploring the use of aircraft systems technology as a means for reducing the pilot workload and enhancing the safety and utility of the aircraft operations. However, recent research has shown that automation, implemented with insufficient consideration to the human factors interface, can frequently create more problems than it solves. Some of this research is discussed, examples of the encountered problems are shown, and solutions regarding the arising problems are suggested.

Bergeron, H. P.↗

Quantifying Pilot Contribution to Flight Safety During an In-Flight Airspeed Failure

Accident statistics cite the flight crew as a causal factor in over 60% of large transport fatal accidents. Yet a well-trained and well-qualified crew is acknowledged as the critical center point of aircraft systems safety and an integral component of the entire commercial aviation system. A human-in-the-loop test was conducted using a Level D certified Boeing 737-800 simulator to evaluate the pilot's contribution to safety-of-flight during routine air carrier flight operations and in response to system failures. To quantify the human's contribution, crew complement was used as an independent variable in a between-subjects design. This paper details the crew's actions and responses while dealing with an in-flight airspeed failure. Accident statistics often cite flight crew error (Baker, 2001) as the primary contributor in accidents and incidents in transport category aircraft. However, the Air Line Pilots Association (2011) suggests "a well-trained and well-qualified pilot is acknowledged as the critical center point of the aircraft systems safety and an integral safety component of the entire commercial aviation system." This is generally acknowledged but cannot be verified because little or no quantitative data exists on how or how many accidents/incidents are averted by crew actions. Anecdotal evidence suggest crews handle failures on a daily basis and Aviation Safety Action Program data generally supports this assertion, even if the data is not released to the public. However without hard evidence, the contribution and means by which pilots achieve safety of flight is difficult to define. Thus, ways to improve the human ability to contribute or overcome deficiencies are ill-defined.

Etherington, Timothy J.↗

Simulator study of pilot-aircraft-display system response obtained with a three-dimensional-box pictorial display

The effect of varying the two important display parameters of a pictorial display on pilot opinion performance, and pilot aircraft display system servomechanism response is examined. The display presents a picture of a three dimensional box that moves along the desired path ahead of the aircraft. The two display parameters examined are the field of view of the picture (from + or - 5 deg to + or - 45 deg) and the distance to the box (from 92 m (300 ft) to 6100 m (20 000 ft)). The results show that the pilots prefer a distance to the box of 915 m (3000 ft) and a field of view of + or - 30 deg. The best performance, both in the sense of quickness of error correction and lowest standard deviation, is obtained with a distance to the box of 92 m (300 ft) and a field of view of + or - 15 deg. A pilot model analysis is used to determine the gains used by the pilots and the servomechanism response characteristics of the pilot aircraft display system.

Adams, J. J.↗

Hydrogen Production System Scaling Using a High-Fidelity Simulation-Optimization Framework

Proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers are widely used for hydrogen production, yet few validated, high-fidelity tools can reliably guide scale-up. Using measured performance from a 50-hour hardware-in-the-loop pilot test, a physics-based, plant-level model of a 1.25 MW PEM electrolyzer and its balance-of-plant (BoP) subsystems is developed and validated. The model couples electrochemistry and thermal/flow submodels and is calibrated against pilot test data via a genetic algorithm (GA) workflow. Validation yields a mean absolute percentage error (APE) of 0.43% for cell voltage and stack power. Two scale-out strategies are then benchmarked under a common 7-day wind-and-photovoltaic (PV) profile: (i) linear duplication of 1.25 MW blocks and (ii) shared-BoP architectures. Sharing BoP between stacks reduces BoP energy by 27% at 10 MW and 34% at 100 MW (vs. linear duplication) and improves system specific energy consumption (SEC) to 52.9 and 52.6 kWh/kg, respectively (from 54.0 kWh/kg with linear duplication). Partial-load studies (25-100% set-point) show that cumulative hydrogen production remains nearly constant down to 50% load because all cases use the same weekly renewable-energy input. Below 50%, the power cap limits how much energy can be used within 168 h, which reduces hydrogen output. The model further indicates that the practical operating optimum lies between 50% and 85% load, where efficiency gains begin to appear without significant loss in hydrogen output. Moreover, the efficiency gains at lower loads are offset by reduced production. The validated framework supports scenario-based engineering trade-off studies for large configurations (10-100 MW) and for operating policies under variable renewables.

08 HYDROGEN↗