Flight Task Research Articles

ИССЛЕДОВАНИЕ ПУТЕЙ РАЗРАБОТКИ ТОЧНЫХ ЦИФРОВЫХ МОДЕЛЕЙ ДЛЯ ОБЪЕКТОВ И УЗЛОВ ТРАНСПОРТНОЙ ИНФРАСТРУКТУРЫ

The article solves the problem of finding a solution for building a digital model of the transport network or transport infrastructure object. On the basis of the analysis, the limitation of available solutions is given and the limited state of implementation of digital models in new modernizations of transport systems is fixed. The paper provides a general scheme of using documentation of the state of the transport system, nodes and elements and considers examples based on real transport systems. The paper examines the basic requirements for digital transport models and proposes a solution based on the use of unmanned aircraft systems. A model of formation of flight task variants is proposed and, as a proof of relevance of the research, the results of a real experiment are given. The task of modernizing a segment of the transport network of the city, the identification of the state of the site on the basis of data from unmanned aircraft system is considered. The article presents a solution to the problem, which has a high quality of building a digital model and the possibility of integration into other information systems for monitoring the condition and forecasting of development.

Accounting for real meteorological conditions at the time of UAV flight mission planning

The article is dedicated to the the problem of not considering the real meteorological conditions in planning the flight task of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) A1-CM Furia . Unmanned aerial system(UAS) A1-CM Furia has been developed and manufactured by LLC SPC Athlon Avia since 2014. Within 2019-2020, the UAS passed a full spectrum of state tests and was adopted by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The main criteria that this UAS meets are the detection and tracking of enemy objectives, equipment maintenance and target reconnaissance. Among the peculiarities of UAV application are performance of tasks in adverse meteorological conditions, the use of radio-electronic suppression by the opposing parties, significant spatial characteristics of the areas of responsibility of units and subdivisions for reconnaissance and engagement.
 The change in the charge current of the battery depending on the air temperature and the change in the charge current of the battery depending on the wind speed in different meteorological conditions were analyzed in the article.
 The article presents experimental results that determine the order of current consumption for battery time depending on meteorological factors, such as wind speed and air temperature. These results indicate that the UAV A1-CM Furia during the task accomplishment can not meet the flight characteristics that are defined in the flight operation manual UAS (FAM). The FAM does not separate the differences in the use of UAV in different meteorological conditions. This causes possible errors in calculating the maximum length of the route and the maximum possible time in the air.
 In the article it was proposed to develop a correction for the use of UAV depending on changes in wind speed and temperature .
 During the assessing of possible corrections for the use of UAV at different wind speeds and air temperatures, the accuracy of determining the possible values of the maximum route length and maximum time of UAV in the air allows us to calculate more accurate data for future tasks accomplisment.
 Experimental methods of calculating corrections took a large part in the specific study of information without taking into account the real meteorological conditions while planning the flight task of the UAV A1-CM Furia.
 The obtained results show that without further consideration of meteorological conditions while planning a flight task there may be inaccuracies.

Features of flight information perception in shaping the flight concept

This study determines the peculiarities of perception of aerobatic information in shaping the horizontal flight concept for operators who do not have experience in simulator training. The skill formation assessment in 10 flights was conducted using time indicators and generalized piloting error calculation based on the task. The program of activity concept shaping is developed using complex sensorimotor reactions at the 3rd stage of flight to increase the attention reserves of operators. The distribution of attention was analyzed when recording the coordinates of eye fixation in the designated visual zones using the mobile oculography system SMI ETG 2 WirelessAnalysPro. The number of eye fixations is established to increase with increased flight experience. Over each flight, the operator spends less time on the perception and evaluation of flight information from a particular device, thus the speed of changing saccadic eye movements increases, and the duration of the fixations themselves decreases. The proposed method of step-by-step flight concept shaping during the performance of the task of the horizontal flight showed high efficiency of developing motor and sensory skills. The development of such modular programs for training take-off and landing may significantly improve the principles of simulator training. The obtained data reveal the peculiarities of aerobatic information perception by operators of complex ergatic systems, with the prospect of increasing the reliability of professional activity of young pilots in the transition to real practical flights.

Rolling Shutter Effect on the Accuracy of Photogrammetric Product Produced by Low-Cost UAV

Low-level cameras are generally used in low-cost UAVs employed for photogrammetric product generation. Although such cameras have advantageous features in terms of flight time and maneuverability thanks to their light weight in a compact structure, they have also some limitations. These sensors are generally operated by rolling shutter which affects the image geometry. Unlike global shutter, a camera with rolling shutter creates the photograph by scanning line by line. In this study, two flights were performed by means of DJI Phantom 4 Pro to investigate the rolling shutter effect on the accuracy of photogrammetric product. Study area was a part of approximately 60 ha of Tasliciftlik Campus, Tokat Gaziosmanpasa University. Average speeds of the platform during photography were 8 m/sec and 12 m/sec. Obtained data were evaluated according to SfM workflow. The orthophotos of the study area were produced from aerial photographs both with and without rolling shutter correction by using photogrammetric software. 24 ground control points located in the study area were used to strength the model and to make accuracy assessment. According to the results, total root mean square error values were improved from 6.33 cm to 4.78 cm and 7.01 cm to 4 cm for the flights pertaining to the 8 m/sec and 12 m/sec, respectively. Thus, it can be said that better accuracy values can be obtained when rolling shutter correction are implemented during the process. Lower speeds may require multiple flight tasks depending on the extents of the study area. Therefore, it is more reasonable to fly at higher speeds and then apply rolling shutter correction to complete field work in less time.

Real-time evaluation method of flight mission load based on sensitivity analysis of physiological factors

As the complexity of flight missions continues to increase, sending a timely warning or providing assistance to pilots helps to reduce the probability of operational errors and flight accidents. Monitoring pilots’ physiological data, real-time evaluation of mission load is a feasible technical way to achieve this. In this paper, a set of flight tasks including aircraft control, human-computer interaction and mental arithmetic tests are designed to simulate five mission loads at different flight difficulty levels. A sensitivity analysis method based on a comprehensive test is proposed to select a set of sensitive physiological factors. Then, based on the SVM hierarchical combination classification method, the pilot mission load real-time evaluation model is established. The test results show significant differences in EMG, respiration rate (abdomen), heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, pupil area, fixation duration, number of fixations, and saccades. The high accuracy obtained from experiments proved that the proposed real-time evaluation model is applicable to meet the requirements of real working environments. The findings can provide methodological references for mission load evaluation research in other fields.

A Digital Twin-Based Platform towards Intelligent Automation with Virtual Counterparts of Flight and Air Traffic Control Operations

Automation technologies have been deployed widely to boost the efficiency of production and operations, to trim the complicated process, and to reduce the human error involved. Nevertheless, aviation remains human-centred and requires collaboration between different parties. Given the lack of a collaborative decision-making training platform for air traffic operations in the industry, this study utilises the concept of cyber-physical systems (CPS) to formulate a system architecture for pilots and air traffic control officers training in collaborative decision making by linking and integrating the virtual counterparts of flights and air traffic control operations. Collaborative decision-making training and the corresponding intelligent automation aids could be realised and supported. A performance analysis via a flight task undertaken with different computational load settings was prepared to evaluate the platform’s latency and integrity. The latency is presented using its 95% confidence interval, and integrity is presented using the percentage of data loss during wireless transmission. The results demonstrated convincing performance and a promising system robustness in both domains.

Helicopter Handling Qualities: A study in pilot control compensation

AbstractThe research reported in this paper is aimed at the development of a metric to quantify and predict the extent of pilot control compensation required to fly a wide range of mission task elements. To do this, the utility of a range of time- and frequency-domain measures to examine pilot control activity whilst flying hover/low-speed and forward flight tasks are explored. The tasks were performed by two test pilots using both the National Research Council (Canada)’s Bell 412 Advanced Systems Research Aircraft and the University of Liverpool’s HELIFLIGHT-R simulator. Handling qualities ratings were awarded for each of the tasks and compared with a newly developed weightedadaptivecontrol compensation metric based on discrete pilot inputs, showing good correlation. Moreover, in combination with a time-varying frequency-domain exposure, the proposed metric is shown to be useful for understanding the relationship between the pilot’s subjective assessment, measured control activity and task performance. By collating the results from the subjective and objective metrics for a range of different mission task elements, compensation boundaries are proposed to predict and verify the subjective assessments from the Cooper-Harper Handling Qualities Rating scale.

Crosschecking through verbal reports under spatial disorientation scenarios: Evidence from eye tracking metrics

Spatial disorientation (SD) can lead to serious aviation accidents. To deal with this predicament, verbal reports (VR), a procedure that requires pilots to verbalize flight information during SD situations, are being carried out in the Republic of Korea Air Force. However, the impact of VR execution on visual attention under SD situations remains to be unexplored. Thus, the purpose of this study is to systematically and objectively analyze the effect of VR execution on pilot's visual attention across different SD illusion types by utilizing eye-tracking measures. The experiment was conducted on 25 male Air Force fighter pilots (14 in the VR group and 11 in the non-VR group) using a flight simulator and eye-tracking device. VR execution and areas of interest (AOIs) served as the independent variables while, eye-tracking metrics and a 7-point perceived attentional load scale served as the dependent variables. The pilots performed the flight task experiencing six types of illusion provoking SD scenarios in a single flight profile (15 min). Findings showed that the gaze distribution in the VR group tended to focus less on areas outside the AOIs than in the non-VR group in all SD scenarios. In addition, the fixation frequency in attitude related AOI on the head-up display for the Coriolis, false horizon, and graveyard spin illusions was significantly higher for the VR group than the non-VR group. On the other hand, there were no significant differences in terms of the perceived attentional load between VR and non-VR group. These suggest that VR execution can be recommended as a means to improve visual attention and to counteract SD effects.

THE AUTONOMOUS UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE GROUP APPLICATION CONCEPT OF THE CLUSTER OF OBJECTS OF INTEREST PAYLOAD DELIVERY

The modern weapons key features are: autonomy, precision, long arm (range more than 2000 km). Such AUAV (Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) are quite expensive. The traditional way of delivering a payload is a priori programming each AUAV to the concrete OI (Object of Interest). Since the probability of successful payload delivery is usually about 0.8 or less, then to increase the successful solution probability to the problem posed, the method of launching two or more AUAVs at one OI is used. Thus, a method that minimizes the cost of a solution, i.e. minimizes the AUAV squad, while maintaining a given probability of completing a flight task is of obvious economic interest. A flock of AUAVs can exchange data before the payload delivery, before the final guidance stage, distribute the available AUAVs to the OI to maximize the total task efficiency. To solve the problem of AUAV reprogramming, a method of AUAV data exchange in the synchronization zone is proposed. The geometrical parameters of the zone, the possibility of radio communication with the required exchange rate, and the speed of the synchronization algorithms have been determined. The program exchange parameters are determined and one of the possible Raft algorithms is selected for solving consensus problems in the unreliable computations network.

Trust in Automation: The Effects of System Certainty on Decision-Making

In the field of Human Factors, the concept of trust in automation can help to explain how and why users interact with particular systems. One way to examine trust is through task performance and/or behavioral observations. Previous work has identified several system-related moderators of trust in automation, such as reliability and complexity. However, the effects of system certainty, i.e., the knowledge that a machine has regarding its own decision-making abilities, on trust remains unclear. The goal of this study was to examine the extent to which system certainty affects perceived trust. Participants performed a partially simulated flight task and decided what action to take in response to targets in the environment detected by the aircraft’s automation. The automation’s certainty levels in recognizing targets were 30%, 50%, and 80%. Overall, participants accepted the system’s recommendation regardless of the certainty level and trust in the system increased as the system’s certainty level increased. Results may help to inform the development of future autonomous systems.

Beach wrack mapping using unmanned aerial vehicles for coastal environmental management

As a common phenomenon along the global coastline, beach wrack, which is part of the blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs), has significant ecological values. However, the excessive accumulation of beach wrack can be a nuisance for local residents and tourism. Meanwhile, beach wrack can become a source of greenhouse gas due to the decomposition. Hence, effective monitoring of beach wrack has become a priority for coastal environmental management. As a cost- and labor-saving approach, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can perform customized flight tasks and achieve aerial images with sub-decimeter spatial resolution. This study investigated the feasibility of using UAVs to map wrack on three different types of beaches. The method of object-based image analysis (OBIA) was applied to classify the aerial images. Three typical machine learning methods, K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Random Forests (RF), were examined with different feature spaces at several segmentation levels. The results showed that the three machine learning methods performed well with the overall classification accuracy >75%. The tested algorithm, SVM with only RGB as feature space at the segmentation scale 50, was geographically transferable to beaches with different characteristics. This study demonstrated that UAVs can be developed as an applicable tool for beach wrack mapping and monitoring, which will help to better explore the role of beach wrack in BCEs and assist the local municipalities in environmental management of the coastal zone.

Effects of Air Route Alternation and Display Design on an Operator’s Situation Awareness, Task Performance and Mental Workload in Simulated Flight Tasks

Air route alternation caused by unexpected events in abnormal or emergency situations often produces adverse consequences on an operator’s cognition and behavior in flight tasks. Under such a circumstance, it is especially necessary to examine the utility of the interaction displays usually designed based on the routine environment. This study was aimed to investigate the effects of air route alternation and display design on operators’ situation awareness (SA), task performance and mental workload during simulated flight tasks. Twenty-four participants attended an experiment where they were instructed to perform simulated flight tasks with three types of display designs in both air-route-as-planned and air-route-altered conditions. Subjective measures, behavioral measures and eye movement measures were adopted to assess the participants’ SA, task performance and mental workload. The results show that unexpected air route alternation increases mental workload as well as deteriorates the SA and task performance due to the gap between attention resource demand and supply. Reducing the demand of the operator’s attention resource should be the focus when coping with unexpected events in abnormal situations. In addition, reasonable information layout, such as a center-layout design of the critical decision-making information, is more important than information salience for improving the SA and task performance in abnormal situations. Nevertheless, indicators with a high-salience design, such as a more open window design and immersive design, are still worth recommending.

Method of predicting nonlinear pilot-induced oscillations due to flight control degradation based on digital virtual flight

Because few methods of predicting nonlinear pilot-induced oscillations are available, it is difficult to analyze the sensitive characteristics of such oscillations in the stage of aircraft scheme design. The pilot has the ability to self-adapt, and the control behavior may change before and after flight control degradation. To identify flight control degradation faults and adaptively adjust a pilot's manipulation behavior, three new modules, including pilot perception, flight control degradation judgment and adaptive adjustment, are established to construct a time-varying pilot model. Combined with a digital flight task model, a digital virtual flight simulation model of flight control degradation is built. An identification algorithm based on fuzzy logic is adopted to quantitatively evaluate the pilot-induced oscillation characteristics according to the numerical simulation results. Then, a nonlinear pilot-induced oscillation prediction method based on digital virtual flight is established. A pitch attitude tracking task is selected to predict the longitudinal, nonlinear pilot-induced oscillations. The results show that the prediction results of the simulations are basically consistent with those of a human-in-the-loop flight test with a ground simulator, which verifies the correctness of the proposed method. Through a sensitivity study of the stick force gradient after degradation, the influence of this parameter and the recommended value are determined. This method can be used to predict the nonlinear pilot-induced oscillation characteristics of fly-by-wire aircraft in the conceptual design stage and provide a theoretical reference for the optimal design of flight control systems.

Software package for simulating a group of unmanned aerial vehicles performance

The paper presents the architecture of a software, designed to simulate the functioning of a group of unmanned aerial vehicles. The software consists of two components: software for modeling unmanned aerial vehicles functioning processes, which designed to simulate the controlled movement of a single UAV and to simulate the functioning of its onboard systems and software for the ground control post, which designed to form a flight task, generate and send control commands to the UAV, and receive information from the UAV about its current state. The paper also discusses the unmanned aerial vehicle group application scenario, main functions of each software components, its user interface as well as implemented models and algorithms.

Automated system for dispatching the movement of unmanned aerial vehicles with a distributed survey of flight tasks

Abstract Over the past decade, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have received increasing attention and are being used in the areas of harvesting, videotaping, and the military industry. In this article, the consideration is focused on areas where video recording is required for ground inspections. This paper describes modern communication technologies and systems that enable interaction and data exchange between UAVs and a ground control station (GCS). This article focuses on different architectures of communication systems, establishing the characteristics of each to identify the preferred architecture that does not require a significant consumption of resources and whose data transmission is reliable. A coherent architecture that includes multiple UAVs, wireless sensor networks, cellular networks, GCSs, and satellite network to duplicate communications for enhanced system security has been offered. Some reliability problems have been discussed, the solution of which was suggested to be a backup connection via satellite, i.e., a second connection. This study focused not only on the communication channels but also on the data exchanged between system components, indicating the purpose of their application. Some of the communication problems and shortcomings of various systems, as well as further focus areas and improvement recommendations were discussed.

Control and analysis of quadcopter flight when setting a complex trajectory of motion

The article presents the solution to the problem of autonomous piloting of a quadcopter for a complex flight task to determine the positioning error. Mathematical model is proposed for the equation of the dynamics of angular motion in a connected coordinate system to solve this problem. The stages of elaboration and creation of a flight task are considered, a model based on directed graphs is presented, reflecting various options for organizing the movement of a quadcopter. Clover quadcopters were taken as the object of research. The study was carried out in the airfield of the laboratory of unmanned aerial systems of the Saint Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation (SUAI). Fragments of the program code for the implementation of autonomous piloting in Python are given. The flight mission consisted in the formation of the letters SUAI in space. The article discusses the necessary hardware, instrumental systems and camera modes of operation for fixing the movement of the quadcopter. As a result of the research, special photographs of the movement of the quadcopter are taken and the permissible range of positioning errors is determined for performing the flight task.

Serving the flow of requests when flying around ground objects by aircraft in the “air taxi” mode

The scientific work solves the problem of organizing a route group flight of aircraft, when pre-flight planning is carried out only for the beginning of the flight, and then operational planning is carried out by analogy with a taxi. The peculiarity of the problem being solved is to ensure the required planning efficiency during the flight of the aircraft, taking into account the safety of their flights without crossing routes. As a result of solving the problem, an approach was substantiated to solving the problem of target distribution of vacant aircraft between incoming orders, taking into account all the factors and constraints under consideration; the effectiveness of the chosen approach was assessed. A minimax scheduling criterion is proposed. The criterion at the same time provides: minimum time for completing the flight task; minimization of the total path length and non-intersection of the flight sections, which increases the efficiency and safety of flight in “peak” dispatch modes. The solution to the problem is proposed using the queuing theory, according to which the considered system belongs to the class of multichannel queuing systems with waiting.

β-Band Analysis from Simulated Flight Experiments

Several safety-related improvements are applied every year to try to minimize the total number of civil aviation accidents. Fortunately, these improvements work well, reducing the number of accident occurrences. However, while the number of accidents due to mechanical failures has decreased, the number of accidents due to human errors seems to grow. On that basis, this work presents a contribution regarding the brain’s β-band activities for different levels of volunteers’ expertise on flight simulator, i.e., experienced, mid-level and beginner, in which they acted as pilots in command during several simulated flights. Spectrogram analysis and statistical measurements of each volunteer’s brain’s β-band were carried out. These were based on seven flight tasks: takeoff, climb, cruise flight, descent, approach, final approach and landing. The results of the proposed experiment showed that the takeoff, approach and landing corresponded to the highest brain activities, i.e., close to 37.06–67.33% more than the brain activity of the other flight tasks: when some accidents were about to occur, the intensities of the brain activity were similar to those of the final approach task. When the volunteers’ expertise and confidence on flight simulation were considered, it was shown that the highest brain magnitudes and oscillations observed of more experienced and confident volunteers were on average close to 68.44% less, compared to less experienced and less confident volunteers. Moreover, more experienced and confident volunteers in general presented different patterns of brain activities compared to volunteers with less expertise or less familiarity with fight simulations and/or electronic games.

A framework to design interaction control of aerial slung load systems: transfer from existing flight control of under-actuated aerial vehicles

This paper establishes a framework within which interaction control is designed for the aerial slung load system composed of an underactuated aerial vehicle, a cable and a load. Instead of developing a new control law for the system, we propose the interaction control scheme by the controllers for under-actuated aerial systems. By selecting the deferentially flat output as the configuration, the equations of motion of the two systems are described in an identical form. The flight control task of the under-actuated aerial vehicle is thus converted into the control of the aerial slung load system. With the help of an admittance filter, the compliant trajectory is generated for the load subject to external interaction force. Moreover, the convergence of the whole system is proved by using the boundedness of the tracking error of vehicle attitude tracking as well as the estimation error of external force. Based on the developed theoretical results, an example is provided to illustrate the design algorithm of interaction controller for the aerial slung load via an existing flight controller directly. The correctness and applicability of the obtained results are demonstrated via the illustrative numerical example.

Technology for controlling attention reserves of the pilot in preparation for piloting a helicopter using night vision goggles

The subject of this research is the automated control of the research of attention reserves of the pilot in preparation for piloting a helicopter using night vision goggles. Such control is implemented via special hardware and software package developed by the authors, the use of which allows tracing the attention reserves of the helicopter pilot during simulator training for a flight in the nighttime using the night vision goggles based on the semi-realistic modeling complexes. Performing a flight task on the simulator, the pilot solves an additional task without compromising the quality of the key task of piloting, which allows assessing the attention reserves. The conclusion is made that the use of the developed set of technical means is able to effectively assesses the quality and performance of the psychophysiological readiness of the pilot to operate a helicopter using night vision goggles, which meets the qualification requirements of the employers and the standards that define the quality of professional training. This provides the possibility of automated control of training for piloting a helicopter using night vision goggles, as well as possibility for improving such training in order to minimize piloting errors caused by human factor.