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At least 19 records
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NASA NTRS1980

Flight investigation of cockpit-displayed traffic information utilizing coded symbology in an advanced operational environment

Traffic symbology was encoded to provide additional information concerning the traffic, which was displayed on the pilot's electronic horizontal situation indicators (EHSI). A research airplane representing an advanced operational environment was used to assess the benefit of coded traffic symbology in a realistic work-load environment. Traffic scenarios, involving both conflict-free and conflict situations, were employed. Subjective pilot commentary was obtained through the use of a questionnaire and extensive pilot debriefings. These results grouped conveniently under two categories: display factors and task performance. A major item under the display factor category was the problem of display clutter. The primary contributors to clutter were the use of large map-scale factors, the use of traffic data blocks, and the presentation of more than a few airplanes. In terms of task performance, the cockpit-displayed traffic information was found to provide excellent overall situation awareness. Additionally, mile separation prescribed during these tests.

Abbott, T. S.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Early flight test experience with Cockpit Displayed Traffic Information (CDTI)

Coded symbology, based on the results of early human factors studies, was displayed on the electronic horizontal situation indicator and flight tested on an advanced research aircraft in order to subject the coded traffic symbology to a realistic flight environment and to assess its value by means of a direct comparison with simple, uncoded traffic symbology. The tests consisted of 28 curved, decelerating approaches, flown by research-pilot flight crews. The traffic scenarios involved both conflict-free and blunder situations. Subjective pilot commentary was obtained through the use of a questionnaire and extensive pilot debriefing sessions. The results of these debriefing sessions group conveniently under either of two categories: display factors or task performance. A major item under the display factor category was the problem of display clutter. The primary contributors to clutter were the use of large map-scale factors, the use of traffic data blocks, and the presentation of more than a few aircraft. In terms of task performance, the cockpit displayed traffic information was found to provide excellent overall situation awareness.

Abbott, T. S.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Cockpit displayed traffic information and distributed management in air traffic control

A graphical display of information (such as surrounding aircraft and navigation routes) in the cockpit on a cathode ray tube has been proposed for improving the safety, orderliness, and expeditiousness of the air traffic control system. An investigation of this method at NASA-Ames indicated a large reduction in controller verbal work load without increasing pilot verbal load; the visual work may be increased. The cockpit displayed traffic and navigation information system reduced response delays permitting pilots to maintain their spacing more closely and precisely than when depending entirely on controller-issued radar vectors and speed command.

Kreifeldt, J. G.↗
NASA NTRS1980

The effect of viewing time, time to encounter, and practice on perception of aircraft separation on a cockpit display of traffic information

The concept of a cockpit display of traffic information (CDTI) includes the integration of air traffic, navigation, and other pertinent information in a single electronic display in the cockpit. Two studies were conducted to develop a clear and concise display format for use in later full-mission simulator evaluations of the CDTI concept. Subjects were required to monitor a CDTI for specified periods of time and to make perceptual judgments concerning the future position of a single intruder aircraft in relationship to their own aircraft. Experimental variables included: type of predictor information displayed on the two aircraft symbols; time to encounter point; length of time subjects viewed the display; amount of practice; and type of encounter (straight or turning). Results show that length of viewing time had little or no effect on performance; time to encounter influenced performance with the straight predictor but did not with the curved predictor; and that learning occurred under all conditions.

Oconnor, S.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Effect of display update interval, update type, and background on perception of aircraft separation on a cockpit display on traffic information

The concept of a cockpit display of traffic information (CDTI) includes the integration of air traffic, navigation, and other pertinent information in a single electronic display in the cockpit. Concise display symbology was developed for use in later full-mission simulator evaluations of the CDTI concept. Experimental variables used included the update interval motion of the aircraft, the update type, (that is, whether the two aircraft were updated at the same update interval or not), the background (grid pattern or no background), and encounter type (straight or curved). Only the type of encounter affected performance.

Jago, S.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Perception of aircraft separation with pilot-preferred symbology on a cockpit display of traffic information

The concept of a cockpit display of traffic information (CDTI) was developed for use in later full mission simulator evaluations of the CDTI concept. Pilots chose their preferred method of displaying air traffic information for several variables. Variables included: type of background, update rate, update type, predictor type, and history type. Each pilot designed a display he felt would be most useful in flight operations. After a series of test trials, each pilot was given the opportunity to modify the display for the experimental task. For a second day of testing, they repeated the experimental task using their display as well as displays chosen by other pilots. Results indicated a variety of individual preferences in symbology and differences in the accuracy of judgments. Pilots indicated concern for clutter of the display, relationship of the displayed symbology to physical reality, and a need to perceive the relative motion of the intruder aircraft. Analysis of data indicated that pilots were able to improve their performance with practice.

Oconnor, S.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Experimental Studies of the Effect of Intent Information on Cockpit Traffic Displays

Intent information provides knowledge of another aircraft's current and future trajectory states. Prototype traffic displays were designed for four different levels of intent: Position, Rate, Commanded State, and FMS (Flight Management System)-Path. The current TCAS (traffic collision avoidance systems) Display, which shows altitude rate in addition to current position and altitude, was used as a baseline and represents the lowest level of intent. The Rate, Commanded State, and FMS-Path Displays show increasing levels of intent information using TCAS-like symbology in addition to incorporating a conflict probe and profile view display. An initial experiment was run on the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Part Task Flight Simulator in which eight airline pilots flew five traffic scenarios with each of the four displays. Results show that pilots had fewer separation violations and maneuvered earlier with the three intent displays. Separation violations were reduced when pilots maneuvered earlier. A second experiment was run to compare performance between displaying intent information directly and incorporating it into a conflict probe. A different set of eight airline pilots flew four traffic scenarios with the TCAS and Commanded State Displays with and without the conflict probe. Conflict probes with two minute and long range look-ahead times were tested. Displaying conflict bands or showing intent information directly both led to fewer separation violations and earlier avoidance maneuvers than the base TCAS Display. Performance was similar between the two minute and long range look-ahead conflict probes. Pilots preferred all intent displays over the TCAS Display.

Barhydt, Richard↗
NASA NTRS1997

Experimental Studies of Intent Information on Cockpit Traffic Displays

Intent information provides knowledge of another aircraft's current and future trajectory states. Prototype traffic displays were designed for four different levels of intent: No Intent, Rate, Commanded State, and Flight Management System (FMS)-Path. The TCAS Display was used as a baseline and represents the No Intent Level. The Rate, Commanded State, and FMS-Path Displays show increasing levels of intent information using TCAS-like symbology in addition to incorporating a conflict probe and profile view display. An experiment was run on the MIT Part Task Flight Simulator in which eight airline pilots flew five traffic scenarios with each of the four displays. Results show that pilots had fewer separation violations and maneuvered earlier with the three intent displays. Separation violations were reduced when pilots maneuvered earlier. A second experiment was run to compare performance between displaying intent information directly and incorporating it into a conflict probe. A different set of eight airline pilots flew four traffic scenarios with the TCAS and Commanded State Displays with and without the conflict probe. Conflict probes with two minute and long range look-ahead times were tested. Displaying conflict bands or showing intent information directly both led to fewer separation violations and earlier avoidance maneuvers than the base TCAS Display. Performance was similar between the two minute and long range look-ahead conflict probes. Pilots preferred all intent displays over the TCAS Display.

Barhydt, Richard↗
NASA NTRS1983

Potential interactions of collision avoidance advisories and cockpit displays of traffic information

Future aircraft cockpits may be equipped with both collision avoidance systems and cockpit traffic situation displays. This paper summarizes a series of experiments investigating a pilot's ability to make a variety of traffic related decisions with a traffic display. Some of the key findings were: Pilots were not able to accurately judge the future position of an aircraft unless the display contained predictor symbols. Pilots' subjective judgements of threat were inversely proportional to time to closest approach but generally were not sensitive to small changes of other parameters of the encounter. When pilots were asked to make avoidance maneuvers based solely on the traffic display, they began their maneuvers well before a CAS advisory would have been triggered. Provided sufficient time was available, pilots preferred horizontal avoidance maneuvers.

Palmer, E.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Effects of Symbol Brightness Cueing on Attention During a Visual Search of a Cockpit Display of Traffic Information

This study investigated visual search performance for target aircraft symbols on a Cockpit Display of Traffic Information (CDTI). Of primary interest was the influence of target brightness (intensity) and highlighting validity (search directions) on the ability to detect a target aircraft among distractor aircraft. Target aircraft were distinguished by an airspace course that conflicted with Ownship (that is, the participant's aircraft). The display could present all (homogeneous) bright aircraft, all (homogeneous) dim aircraft, or mixed bright and dim aircraft, with the target aircraft being either bright or dim. In the mixed intensity condition, participants may or may not have been instructed whether the target was bright or dim. Results indicated that highlighting validity facilitated better detection times. However, instead of bright targets being detected faster, dim targets were found to be detected more slowly in the mixed intensity display than in the homogeneous display. This relative slowness may be due to a delay in confirming the dim aircraft to be a target when it it was among brighter distractor aircraft. This hypothesis will be tested in future research. Funding for this work was provided by the Advanced Air Transportation Technologies Project of NASA's Airspace Operation Systems Program.

Johnson, Walter W.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Jet transport flight operations using cockpit display of traffic information during instrument meteorological conditions: Simulation evaluation

A simulation study was undertaken to evaluate flight operations using cockpit display of traffic information (CDTI) in a conventional jet transport aircraft. Eight two-person airline flight crews participated as test subjects flying simulated terminal area approach and departure operations under instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). A fixed-base cockpit simulator configured with a full complement of conventional electromechanical instrumentation to permit full workload operations was utilized. Traffic information was displayed on a color cathode-ray tube (CRT) mounted above the throttle quadrant in the typical weather radar location. A transparent touchpanel overlay was utilized for pilot interface with the display. Air traffic control (ATC) simulation included an experienced controller and full partyline radio environment for evaluation of pilot-controlled self-separation and traffic situation monitoring tasks. Results of the study revealed the CDTI to be well received by the test subjects as a useful system which could be incorporated into an existing jet transport cockpit. Crew coordination and consistent operating procedures were identified as important considerations in operational implementation of traffic displays. Cockpit workload was increased with active CDTI tasks. However, all test subjects rated the increase to be acceptable.

Williams, David H.↗
NASA NTRS1981

A pilot's subjective analysis of a Cockpit Display of Traffic Information (CDTI)

Both the advent of electronic displays for cockpit applications and the availability of high-capacity data transmission systems, linking aicraft with ATC ground computers, offer the opportunity of expanding the pilots' role in the distributive management process. A critical element in this process is believed to be the presentation to the pilot of his traffic situation. A representative cockpit display of traffic information (CDTI) system is presented as viewed from the pilot in the cockpit, and the research results from flight tests presented. The use of advanced controls and displays allows for presentation to the pilot, large quantities of information that he has not had before. The real challenge in the design of an operational CDTI system will be the satisfaction of needs for information and the presentation of all necessary information, only in a useable format in order to avoid clutter. Even though a reasonably large display was utilized in these tests, display clutter was the primary problem from the standpoint of information assimilation.

Keyser, G. L., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Perception of horizontal aircraft separation on a cockpit display of traffic information

The influence of various display symbologies in a cockpit display of traffic information (CDTI) on pilot perception of horizontal aircraft separation is investigated. In a series of nine experiments using different combinations of display symbology, information update rate, display viewing time and encounter geometry, subjects were asked to predict whether an intruder aircraft would pass in front of or behind their own aircraft. It is found that displayed history did not improve task performance, although it was desired by the pilots when no other display of aircraft turn rate was available, and that pilots made fewer errors when they had predictive information. Variations in the rate of updating information from 0.1 to 4 sec and viewing times from 1 to 16 sec are not observed to affect performance. It is concluded that the present task, which may arise in a collision avoidance situation, would require an onboard computer to make a prediction of relative aircraft position and display it on the CDTI.

Palmer, E. A.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Development and Demonstration of a Prototype Free Flight Cockpit Display of Traffic Information

Two versions of a prototype Free Flight cockpit situational display (Basic and Enhanced) were examined in a simulation at the NASA Ames Research Center. Both displays presented a display of traffic out to a range of 120 NM, and an alert when the automation detected a substantial danger of losing separation with another aircraft. The task for the crews was to detect and resolve threats to separation posed by intruder aircraft. An Enhanced version of the display was also examined. It incorporated two additional conflict alerting levels and tools to aid in trajectory prediction and path planning. Ten crews from a major airline participated in the study. Performance analyses and pilot debriefings showed that the Enhanced display was preferred, and that minimal separation between the intruder and the ownship was larger with the Enhanced display. In addition, the additional information on the Enhanced display did not lead crews to engage in more maneuvering. Instead an opposite trend was indicated. Finally, crews using the Enhanced display responded more proactively, tending to resolve alerts earlier.

Johnson, Walter W.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Cockpit displays of traffic information: Airline pilots opinions about content, symbology, and format

A number of candidate computer-generated cockpit displays of traffic information (CDTI) displays and display options were simulated statically and were shown to 23 airline pilots who were asked to respond to more than 250 questions about them. The pilots indicated that the amount and complexity of navigation information displayed should increase with altitude and map scale. Terrain information should appear automatically if a pilot's own aircraft descends below the minimum safe altitude and should include only those obstruction within 2,000 ft or less. Few pilots that weather information should be displayed on a CDTI, but if it was, it should be at pilot request only. A chevron-shaped symbol, located so that the majority of the map area was ahead was preferred. The position, altitude, ground speed, ground track, weight class, and flightpath history of other aircraft should be presented graphically by coding the shape of the symbol for other aircraft or presented digitally in data tags displayed at pilot request. All pilots thought that color coding was necessary to recognize different categories of information quickly and accurately. The majority of pilots felt that a CDTI would provide useful information even though its presence might increase their workload somewhat particularly during its introductory stages.

Hart, S. G.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Evaluation of Perspective and Coplanar Cockpit Displays of Traffic Information to Support Hazard Awareness in Free Flight

We examined the cockpit display representation of traffic, to support the pilot in tactical planning and conflict avoidance. Such displays may support the "free flight" concept, but can also support greater situation awareness in a non-free flight environment. Two perspective views and a coplanar display were contrasted in scenarios in which pilots needed to navigate around conflicting traffic, either in the absence (low workload) or presence (high workload) of a second intruder aircraft. All three formats were configured with predictive aiding vectors that explicitly represented the predicted point of closest pass, and predicted penetration of an alert zone around ownship. Ten pilots were assigned to each of the display conditions, and each flew a series of 60 conflict maneuvers that varied in their workload and the complexity of the conflict geometry. Results indicated a tendency to choose vertical over lateral maneuvers, a tendency which was amplified with the coplanar display. Vertical maneuvers by the intruder produced an added source of workload. Importantly, the coplanar display supported performance in all measures that was equal to or greater than either of the perspective displays (i.e., fewer predicted and actual conflicts, less extreme maneuvers). Previous studies that have indicated perspective superiority have only contrasted these with UNIplanar displays rather than the coplanar display used here.

Merwin, David H.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Evaluation of the potential format and content of a cockpit display of traffic information

The types and formats of information most suitable to be displayed in a cockpit display of traffic information (CDTI) are investigated. Twenty three airline pilots and 13 instrumentated general aviation pilots were asked to select from sets of symbols of various complexities incorporating various levels of information that would contain all information necessary for monitoring the traffic situation, detecting errors, maintaining separation and merging. Display features selected by a significant number of pilots were then evaluated for their capabilities in helping pilots to assess the lateral or vertical separation between their own and another aircraft in a dynamic simulation. It is found that while some of the features initially chosen by the pilots, such as flightpath predictors, aided the pilots in perceiving the traffic situation correctly, others, such as ground speed and climb/descend arrows and relative altitude encoding of symbols for other aircraft, did not contribute to improved performance speed or accuracy.

Hart, S. G.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Horizontal Conflict Resolution Maneuvers with a Cockpit Display of Traffic Information

Pilot resolution of potential conflicts in the horizontal plane when the only information available on the other aircraft was presented on a Cockpit Display of Traffic Information (CDTI) is investigated. The pilot's task was to assess the situation and if necessary maneuver so as to avoid the other aircraft. No instructions were given on evasive strategy or on what was considered to be an acceptable minimum separation. The results indicate that pilots had a strong bias of turning toward the intruder aircraft in order to pass behind it. In more than 50% of the encounters with a 90 degree crossing angle in which the intruder aircraft was programmed to pass behind the aircraft, the pilots maneuvered so as to pass behind the intruder. This bias was not as strong with the display which showed a prediction of the intruder's relative velocity. The average miss distance for all encounters was about 4500 feet.

Palmer, E.↗