Ergonomics Commons^™

Artificial Intelligence Decision Support And Pilot Performance, Aarohi Srivastava

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into aviation decision support systems (DSS) introduces new opportunities for pilots. While these systems offer considerable benefits, ensuring safe and optimal human-AI interaction requires further research. In the case of student pilots, trust calibration, system transparency, and appropriate reliance are all factors that influence the operational success of an integrated AI system. The systems are designed with the goal of decreasing cognitive workload, increasing situational awareness (SA), and providing data-based recommendations to help the pilot make quick and accurate decisions. This study will evaluate the effects of disclosed vs undisclosed AI accuracy on student …

Ergonomics Of A Pilot Workstation And Aircraft Interactions On A Cessna 172 Nav Iii, Nicole Beaulieu

Student Research Symposium (SRS)

This study analyzes the ergonomic aspects of the Cessna 172 Navigator III, a common flight training aircraft. The research investigated the interactions between pilots and the aircraft, focusing on pilot fatigue, workstation design, anthropometric data, and pilot interactions with controls. The study included surveys, interviews, and anthropometric measurements involving three pilots with varying experience levels, alongside physical measurements of the cockpit and a workstation ergonomic assessment.. Participants reported issues with limited physical space, particularly impactful to the pilot’s posture and ability to manipulate controls. Display visibility and interaction were areas of concern, often requiring pilots to lean in awkward postures. …

Evaluation Of Tactile Cueing Embedded In An Aviation Headset On Pilot Altitude Control, Nicholas D. Wilson, Jessica Van Bree, Matthew Cleveland, Sunny Charakuru, Thomas Petros, Richard Ferraro, Kouhyar Tavakolian

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

This study evaluated the effectiveness of tactile cueing integrated into a pilot’s headset on pilot altitude control during simulated instrument conditions. Pilots typically rely on visual and auditory inputs to maintain situational awareness, but in high-workload or instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), these channels can become overloaded. One underutilized alternative for alerting is a tactile cueing apparatus. Using an X-Plane simulation of a Piper Archer equipped with a G-1000 avionics suite, 39 FAA-certified pilots flew two precision approaches. The experimental group (n = 20) received haptic cues via ear seal-embedded tactors when deviating from assigned altitude or glideslope. The control group …

Utilising Video Recordings To Assess Student Pilot Performance: An Exploratory Study During A Simulated Training Flight, Bradley Moncion, Shi Cao, Allison Lynch, Suzanne K. Kearns, Elizabeth Irving, Ewa Niechwiej-Szwedo

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

In ab initio flight training, the quality of the feedback a flight instructor provides their student is essential to their success. While other high-performance and safety-critical industries have incorporated the use of video recordings into training and assessments, the aviation industry generally has not. There are some studies addressing the potential benefits of video recordings in training professional pilots, but there is a lack of research at the ab initio level. In this study, five flight instructors assessed the performance of student pilots conducting a simulated training flight using a 4-point marking scale. The flights instructors were then tasked with …

Designing An Interactive Application To Prevent Runway Incursion: A Systems Engineering Approach, Yixuan Cheng, Dahai Liu, Dennis Vincenzi, Donald S. Metscher

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Runway incursion is a leading cause of serious incidents and accidents at airports. A common cause of runway incursions is unfamiliarity with the airport layout. To address this, we designed an electronically interactive application intended as a practice tool for pilots during flight preparation. The aim of this application is to improve pilots’ familiarity with airports, ultimately helping to reduce runway incursions, with the goals of being interactive, affordable, easily accessible, and designed for use on mobile devices. We applied a systems engineering approach that adheres to human factors engineering principles to ensure user-friendly design and optimization of the interaction …

Gender Differences And Cockpit Design, Susan Archer, Heidi Brewer, Stacie Fain, Stephanie Smith

Student Works

The design project reported in this paper examined female pilots’ experiences with how well or poorly cockpit design allowed them to safely accomplish their flying missions. The general aviation aircraft cockpit is not designed for female pilots, often causing them to find ways to adapt to the cockpit in order to operate the aircraft safely. Two primary focal areas for adaptations address issues with accessibility of controls and “viewability” inside and outside the cockpit. The design team used a Situation Awareness-Oriented Interface Design (SAOD) approach in preparing cockpit design recommendations for general aviation aircraft that would accommodate female pilots.

Effects Of Lighting And Noise On Performance And Situation Awareness In An Air Traffic Control Task, Saralee Pruksaritanon, Andrew Dattel Ph.D., Steven Hampton Ed.D.

National Training Aircraft Symposium (NTAS)

Work environment influences an individual’s performance and situation awareness (SA). This study aims to investigate the effects of lighting and noise levels on performance and situation awareness in an air traffic control (ATC) task. These two variables are important in the domain of ATC because the task requires an individual to receive and process information both visually and auditorily. The results are useful for designing air traffic control rooms, which are set differently among different air navigation service providers. The subjects are 16 students majoring in Air Traffic Management (ATM) at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) – Daytona Beach, FL. The …

Ranking Of Human Senses In Relation To Different In-Flight Activities Contributing To The Comfort Experience Of Airplane Passengers, Joyce Bouwens, Suzanne Hiemstra-Van Mastrigt, Peter Vink

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Bubb, Bengler, Grünen, and Vollrath (2015) identified six environmental comfort factors and ordered them from most important to least important (smell, light, vibrations, sound, climate and anthropometry). This paper attempts to verify whether this suggested order of comfort-related factors also applies to the expectations of aircraft passengers. For this purpose, two studies were carried out. First, a survey was conducted among 183 aircraft passengers between 19 and 64 years old. In this survey, respondents were asked to rank six comfort factors by selecting the most important factor from 15 pairs of factors (e.g. light versus smell). The respondents indicated anthropometry …

Effect Of Anthropometric Variability On Middle-Market Aircraft Seating, Tara C. Sriram

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

A middle-of-market aircraft, or MoMA, is defined as an aircraft capable of flying 180-250 passengers without refueling for 2,300-5,800 miles(~2,000-5,000 nautical miles). As the name suggests, middle-of-market aircraft are positioned in between the market segments served by narrow body (single-aisle) and wide body (twin-aisle) aircraft. This paper presents the findings of a study on the effect of anthropomorphic variability on economy class seating on middle-market aircraft currently in service. The study found that among 130 middle-market LOPAs, the mean seat pitch was greater for US airlines than for Asian airlines. Furthermore, the sampled Asian airlines had a higher preference …

Unmanned Aerial Systems: Research, Development, Education & Training At Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Michael P. Hickey

Publications

With technological breakthroughs in miniaturized aircraft-related components, including but not limited to communications, computer systems and sensors, state-of-the-art unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have become a reality. This fast-growing industry is anticipating and responding to a myriad of societal applications that will provide new and more cost-effective solutions that previous technologies could not, or will replace activities that involved humans in flight with associated risks.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has a long history of aviation-related research and education, and is heavily engaged in UAS activities. This document provides a summary of these activities, and is divided into two parts. The first part …

Identifying Mode Confusion In Recorded Aircraft Data, James Douglas Thomas, Yul Kwon, Steven J. Landry

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

In recent decades, commercial aviation accidents have occurred due to human-machine interaction (HMI) problems known as “mode confusion.” This is caused, in some cases, by a lack of understanding of onboard systems by pilots. Large amounts of Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA) data are available, analysis of which could assist in identification of safety risks in daily operations. Through analysis of pilot reactions and recorded aircraft data, methods to detect mode confusion are developed to improve aviation safety. This study was conducted by inducing mode confusion into a flight simulation scenario and analyzing aircraft data to detect emerging patterns. Three …

An Ergonomic Evaluation Of Aircraft Pilot Seats, Yolanda Nicole Andrade

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Seat comfort has become increasingly important in today's society as we spend more time at consoles, instrument panels, or just online. However, seat comfort is hard to define and difficult to measure. Several measures both objective and subjective were used to evaluate seat comfort in commercially available average pilot seats. Three pilot seats, which had the same material and similar adjustments but different physical attributes, and a universal classroom seat, with different material and no adjustments, were compared by 20 volunteers using subjective and objective measures in a Latin square controlled repeated measures design. A Friedman's test was used to …

Nurturing Systems Thinking: Developing A Framework Based On The Human Factors Analysis And Classification System (Hfacs) To Improve Systems Development Processes, Arjun Vijayanarayanan

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Large systems engineering projects have an astonishingly high failure rate. The reasons hypothesized for such a high failure rate include the neglect of nonsalient system elements such as social and human or organizational aspects of systems. Social and human factors have long been known to be critical elements of systems that are frequently ignored (e.g., Goguen, 1994). Systems engineering processes can benefit and be improved by effective utilization of a framework that helps developers expand their attention and efforts beyond the salient aspects of the system and the development process. In the aviation field, the Human Factors Analysis and Classification …

Effect Of Sound Cue Frequency Filters On Front/Back Localization Performance For Three-Dimensional Verbal And Non-Verbal Warnings, Angelica A. Hernandez

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

In aviation, as technology becomes more advanced and more demands are placed on the human operator, warnings have become an important part of display design. Although warnings have made a significant contribution to safety, problems still plague their design. Recent technological advances have been able to give sounds and warnings a three-dimensional quality (3D). This technology enables a person to perceive sound from any direction around the listener without having the sound physically come from that direction. Three-dimensional sounds have been shown to improve target acquisition and collision avoidance in flight (Oving & Bronkhorst, 1999), and may have other future …

The Search For The Opto-Kinetic Cervical Reflex And Reduced Roll Reversals In Pilots Viewing A 3-D Perspective Display, John Carl Faust

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

Pilots using conventional instrumentation can suffer spatial disorientation (SD) when unexpectedly forced to transition from visual flight to instrument flight during roll maneuvers. This simulator study was conducted to see if a 3-D perspective display could prevent this form of spatial disorientation by eliciting the opto-kinetic cervical reflex (OKCR), an instinctive postural response that humans use to maintain awareness of their spatial orientation. The current research found evidence of the OKCR in pilots viewing both a 3-D perspective display and an electronic attitude indicator. Pilots viewing a standard moving-horizon attitude indicator produced little or no OKCR response. However, pilots still …

An Experimental Investigation Of The Differences In Subjective Pilot Workload Across Simulated And Real Flight Conditions, Todd V. Denning

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

An investigation was undertaken to determine the difference in workload between simulated and real flight conditions. The results from the Modified Cooper-Harper and NASA-TLX did not show significance, however, the theoretical implications from the NASA-TLX subscales were of interest. As this is the first study comparing these two environments utilizing subjective workload measures, more research needs to take place in order to provide reliable and valid findings.

The Effect Of Cockpit Noise On Aircraft Pilot Psychomotor Performance, Kelechi (Kc) Nwabeke

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of cockpit noise on aircraft pilot psychomotor performance on a simulated tracking task. The performance of thirty-two participants was measured on a vertical and horizontal tracking task. In the control group, eight participants were used in a quiet condition. In the experimental group, eight participants were exposed to low intensity cockpit noise (50 dBA), eight participants were exposed to medium intensity cockpit noise (60 dBA) and eight participants were expose to high intensity cockpit noise (70 dBA). The performance of the control and experimental groups was measured in an advanced …

General Aviation Aircraft: A Comparative Analysis Of Analog Instrument Display And Conceptual Primary Flight Display, Ungul Laptaned

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects that analog instrument display versus primary flight display (PFD) had on pilot performance. Pilot performance was evaluated by: (a) time, and (b) number of errors. There were twenty subjects with a minimum of a private pilot license selected from the Aeronautical Science department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Three flight conditions (spoiler problem, engine problem, and flap failure) acting as a control group was given to the flight students while flying a traffic pattern. A Silicon Graphics® flight simulation software program and a video camera were used as the data …

The Impact Of The Simulated Digital Data Radio Communication Induced Interference On Voice Radio Communication, Daniela T. Kratchounova

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The transition of air/ground communications, from its present analog structure to a new digital communications architecture, will span a 10-year time frame. Testing to date indicates that the potential for interference from the digital system to the analog system would be critical, especially for General Aviation (GA) aircraft. This type of interference can be described as short, random bursts of noise capable of completely obliterating parts of the voice communication. The subsequent degrading effects on voice radio communications could jeopardize flight safety. The masking of parts of important information would result in distracted attention, debilitated cognitive performance, high level of …