Pilot's Awareness Research Articles

Artificial Intelligence for Real-Time Tolerance to Critical Flight Data Errors in Large Aircraft

The environment in the cockpit of large transport aircraft is highly complex due to an increasing number of automation systems. This complexity can cause pilots to become less aware of how systems interact. It becomes a severe issue when sensor or data failures occur, as such failures can contribute to a situation in which it is difficult for a pilot to assess what actually is happening and, possibly, how to resolve the problem. This paper presents a method, based on artificial intelligence, for identifying incorrect critical flight control data in real-time. A novel combination of reinforcement learning and a denoising autoencoder is proposed to identify failures and to provide inputs to the aircraft’s flight control and guidance systems, allowing for the correct maneuver to counter the failure and/or to avoid or recover from flight upsets. Tests in stall conditions with a partially blocked pitot tube show that the proposed method results in successful detection and recovery. The performance of the system without an autoencoder is compared to highlight the significant advantages, how this relates to creating systems with AI to improve situational awareness for pilots, and to execute appropriate automatic maneuvers to successfully counter the effect of sensor failures.

Incidence of cervical and lumbar spine injuries in Brazilian air force helicopter pilots

This paper is a brief analysis of the incidence of pain and discomfort caused by flying rotary-wing aircraft. This is due to the excessive vibration exerted by the rotors on the pilot's seat, which is absorbed by the pilot's spine, and the posture adopted by the pilot during the flight due to the layout of the controls. Air forces from various countries such as Israel, Sweden, England, among others, have considered low back pain to be a primary health problem in airmen and admit that this type of problem is detrimental to flight safety, given that the pain acts throughout the flight and can appear at a level that distracts the pilot. The aim of this study was to clarify the incidence of pain and discomfort among rotary-wing pilots in the Brazilian Air Force. To help carry out the study, an online questionnaire with multiple-choice, scale and full answer questions was used, answered by 124 aviation officers belonging to the Brazilian Air Force. Corroborating previous research in this area, we identified that the main discomforts are related to the position of piloting the aircraft, mainly located in the region of the spine. Most of this discomfort lasts from a few minutes to a few hours. The main preventative methods used by helicopter pilots are related to strength training. Thus, we can infer the awareness of pilots and authorities of the importance of physical exercise, thus inferring an important preventive measure.

Wire Strikes and In-Air Obstacle Collisions During Agricultural Aviation Operations.

INTRODUCTION: Wire strikes and in-air collisions with obstacles are a leading cause of accidents in the aerial application industry. While some of these collisions occur due to unseen obstacles, some pilots report being previously aware of the obstacles that they collide with. Whether or not pilots are aware of obstacles pre-collision is an important factor to inform methods of accident prevention.METHODS: Final reports from the National Transportation Safety Board were analyzed for Part 137 Agricultural Operation accidents that took place between January 2020 and December 2022. A deeper analysis of cases that involved an in-air collision with an obstacle was performed, excluding cases that were attributable to an external cause (e.g., aerodynamic stall). The pilot's awareness of the obstacle pre-accident was inferred from accident narratives if available.RESULTS: Nearly half of all accidents (N = 45 of 107) involved an in-air collision with an obstacle (e.g., wire, tree, pole) as the defining event. In cases where pilot awareness of the obstacle was determinable through the accident report, over half of pilots (N = 21 of 39) had previously seen this obstacle yet still made contact with it.DISCUSSION: In-air obstacle collisions make up a substantial portion of accidents within Part 137 Agricultural Operations. Nearly half of pilots were already aware of the obstacle before collision, indicating that inadequate preparation in scoping the field is not a predominant driver of these events. Instead, these findings suggest that other factors including distractions, high task difficulty, and errors in decision-making may contribute.Baumgartner HM. Wire strikes and in-air obstacle collisions during agricultural aviation operations. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2023; 94(11):852-856.

Development and Evaluation of an Enhanced Virtual Reality Flight Simulation Tool for Airships

A real-time flight simulation tool is proposed using a virtual reality head-mounted display (VR-HMD) for remotely piloted airships operating in beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) conditions. In particular, the VR-HMD was developed for stratospheric airships flying at low/high altitudes. The proposed flight simulation tool uses the corresponding aerodynamics characteristics of the airship, the buoyancy effect, mass balance, added mass, propulsion contributions and ground reactions in the FlightGear Flight Simulator (FGFS). The VR headset was connected to the FGFS along with the radio controller containing the real-time orientation/state of each button, which is also simulated to provide better situational awareness, and a head-up display (HUD) that was developed to provide the required flight data. In this work, a system was developed to connect the FGFS and the VR-capable graphics engine Unity to a PC and a wireless VR-HMD in real time with minimal lag between data transmission. A balance was found for FGFS to write to a CSV file at a period of 0.01 s. For Unity, the file was read every frame, which translates to around 0.0167 s (60 Hz). A test procedure was also conducted with a similar rating technique based on the NASA TLX questionnaire, which identifies the pilot’s available mental capacity when completing an assigned task to assure the comfortability of the proposed VR-HMD. Accordingly, a comparison was made for the aircraft control using the desktop simulator and the VR-HMD tool. The results showed that the current iteration of the system is ideal to train pilots on using similar systems in a safe and immersive environment. Furthermore, such an advanced portable system may even increase the situational awareness of pilots and allow them to complete a sizeable portion of actual flight tests with the same data transmission procedures in simulation. The VR-HMD flight simulator was also conceived to express the ground control station (GCS) concept and transmit flight information as well as the point of view (POV) visuals in real-time using the real environment broadcast using an onboard camera.

The effect of flight phase on electrodermal activity and gaze behavior: A simulator study

Current advances in airplane cockpit design and layout are often driven by a need to improve the pilot's awareness of the aircraft's state. This involves an improvement in the flow of information from aircraft to pilot. However, providing the aircraft with information on the pilot's state remains an open challenge. This work takes a first step towards determining the pilot's state based on biosensor data. We conducted a simulator study to record participants' electrodermal activity and gaze behavior, indicating pilot state changes during three distinct flight phases in an instrument failure scenario. The results show a significant difference in these psychophysiological measures between a phase of regular flight, the incident phase, and a phase with an additional troubleshooting task after the failure. The differences in the observed measures suggest great potential for a pilot-aware cockpit that can provide assistance based on the sensed pilot state.

Effects of delayed weather radar images on pilots’ spatial awareness

Data-linked Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) images can be delayed up to 20 min in the cockpit. Pilots' underappreciating or ignoring the time delay may be the major cause of two fatal accidents. No studies have connected spatial awareness with accidents. This study evaluated how delayed radar information affects the spatial awareness of pilots at three levels of analysis. Thirty-one student pilots and flight instructors completed three sequential estimation tasks (i.e., the current location of storms, the current relative distance to storms, and the future relative distance to storms). Fifty-four weather scenarios were developed for three factors (storm speeds, delays, displays) and presented to pilots. The results indicated that delays and the storm speed significantly affected the three levels of spatial awareness. Participants' estimation accuracy was the lowest under long delay and fast speed in the current location estimation, under medium delay and speed in the current distance estimation, and under short delay and slow speed in the future distance estimation. Spatial awareness could be high under the long delay and fast speed conditions if pilots had no time limits. Thus, pilots can process 20-min delayed radar information. However, there were no differences in estimation accuracy between the static and animation displays in any of the conditions. Well-designed features on displays, such as scale or distance measuring tools, can aid pilots’ spatial estimation and support all levels of spatial awareness.

Identifying Cognitive Mechanism Underlying Situation Awareness of Pilots' Unsafe Behaviors Using Quantitative Modeling.

Situation awareness (SA) of pilots’ unsafe behavior can ensure safety onboard. Thus, the cognitive mechanism that controls the SA leading to unsafe behavior must be articulated. This study employs the SA model and theory of planned behavior (TPB) to articulate a quantitative model of ship safe piloting. Firstly, the hierarchical classification framework of unsafe behaviors was constructed as an analytical foundation for rational and unconscious behaviors in sight of cognitive processes, and then the measurement elements of the cognitive mechanisms for behaviors were identified. Subsequently, based on the structural model, a hypothetical model of the cognitive path for unsafe behaviors was proposed by using the extended TPB, where there are four independent variables (i.e., attitude (ATD), subjective norm (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC)), one mediating variables (i.e., SA) and two dependent variables (i.e., behavioral intention (BI) and unsafe behaviors (BE)). Finally, this hypothetical model was analyzed with the data resources from extended TPB questionnaire of 295 pilots. Analysis results show that relationships of causation and mediation in the cognitive mechanism are in line with the behavior pattern and SA have a pronounced mediating effect and a strong relevance to the causal chain of extended TPB framework. This study integrated the SA three-level model to understand the motivation–cognition–action–feedback (MCAF) mechanism of pilots’ unsafe behaviors under cognitive mode of information processing through structural model. It would make a valuable contribution to the assessment and intervention of safety behaviors, and provide a basic framework for monitoring the situation awareness of pilot by man-machine interactive measurement technology in the future.

Severity-Mapped Vibrotactile Cues to Support Interruption Management with Weather Messaging in the General Aviation Cockpit

Despite the increasing availability of technologies that provide access to aviation weather information in the cockpit, weather remains a prominent contributor to general aviation (GA) accidents. Pilots fail to detect the presence of new weather information, misinterpret it, or otherwise fail to act appropriately on it. When cognitive demands imposed by concurrent flight tasks are high, the risks increase for each of these failure modes. Previous research shows how introducing vibrotactile cues can help ease or redistribute some of these demands, but there is untapped potential in exploring how vibratory cues can facilitate “interruption management”, i.e., fitting the processing of available weather information into flight task workflow. In the current study, GA pilots flew a mountainous terrain scenario in a flight training device while receiving, processing, and acting on various weather information messages that were displayed visually, in graphical and text formats, on an experimental weather display. Half of the participants additionally received vibrotactile cues via a connected smartwatch with patterns that conveyed the “severity” of the message, allowing pilots to make informed decisions about when to fully attend to and process the message. Results indicate that weather messages were acknowledged more often and faster when accompanied by the vibrotactile cues, but the time after acknowledgment to fully process the messages was not significantly affected by vibrotactile cuing, nor was overall situation awareness. These findings illustrate that severity-encoded vibrotactile cues can support pilot awareness of updated weather as well as task management in processing weather messages while managing concurrent flight demands.

Methods and algorithms for classifying air targets by importance based on data from an airborne radar system Part 1. Two-stage ranking of air targets according to the degree of danger during the operation of radar in the multipurpose tracking mode

Classification of air targets by rank of importance is the basis for ensuring situational awareness of pilots (crew members) of military aircraft, therefore, the problem of increasing the reliability of target classification is very urgent. The requirement to provide the pilot (crew) with full situational awareness means providing him with complete and reliable information about tactical, electronic, navigation situations and the technical condition of on-board systems. It should be noted that when classifying air targets according to the rank of importance, dangerous, favorable for attack and non-dangerous targets are currently usually distinguished. Specific tasks of classifying air targets by importance rank belong to the class of object recognition tasks. In modern aviation radio-electronic complexes, the classification of air targets according to the rank of importance is usually carried out according to the data of on-board radar systems, as well as electronic intelligence systems and optoelectronic systems. It should be noted that one of the main information modes of functioning of modern and future radar systems is the multipurpose tracking mode, in which an airborne radar can simultaneously track a large number of targets in its area of responsibility. In the conduct of hostilities, ensuring one's own security is a priority task for aircraft of various purposes. In this case, the role of dangerous air targets can be not only targets belonging to the opposing side, but also their own aircraft in dangerous encounters, in which a collision can occur between them. Therefore, the problem of preventing dangerous encounters and preventing aircraft collisions with each other becomes one of the key problems in group operations of military aviation. It should be noted that by now there are various methods of assessing goals according to the degree of their danger, but there is no systematic presentation of them. An attempt is made in the article to give a systematized presentation of new methods for solving this problem, based on a two-stage decision-making on the predicted minimum distance of closest approach and the time to reach it. Based on this approach, the following are considered: the method of subjective reduction of private indicators; procedures for determining the hazard indicators of air targets in the antenna coordinate system; rules for making decisions on the degree of danger of targets, taking into account their possible maneuver; – the composition of information support for solving this problem has been determined.

Acoustic Characterization of Glaze and Rime Ice Structures on an Oscillating Airfoil via Fully Unsteady Simulations

The development of low-cost and simple technologies to improve pilot awareness of icing environments is crucial to improve the safety of rotorcraft, and especially those with limited icing clearance which are admittedly operating within icing environments without full icing clearance. An acoustic characterization of glaze and rime ice structures is hereby introduced to begin to quantify different ice shape noise signatures which directly transcend from the iced performance characteristics to develop acoustic ice detection technologies. The feasibility of the detection technique is assessed for fully unsteady simulations of ice accretion on an oscillating, two-dimensional airfoil. This work focuses on the computational modeling of the experimental database of a rotor airfoil with pitching motion during icing conditions from the NASA Glenn Icing Research Wind Tunnel and computing the resultant noise signals and analyzing their topology.

Design of a Haptic Feedback System for Flight Envelope Protection

Several modern aircraft use a passive control manipulator: a spring–damper system that generates command signals to the flight control computers in combination with a flight envelope protection system that limits pilot inputs when approaching the aircraft limits. This research project aims to increase pilot awareness of this protection system through the use of force feedback on the control device, that is, haptics. This paper describes in detail how the haptic feedback works and when it triggers; another paper will discuss the results of an experimental evaluation. With the current haptic design, pilots can get five cues: first, a discrete force cue when approaching the limits; second, an increased spring coefficient for control deflections that bring the aircraft closer to its limits; third, a stick shaker for low velocities; fourth, if a low-velocity condition requires an input, the stick is moved forward to the desired control input; and finally, the stick follows the automatic Airbus “pitch-up” command during an overspeed condition. This novel system is expected to help pilots correctly assess the situation and decide upon the right control action. It will be evaluated in two scenarios close to the flight envelope limits: a windshear and an icing event.

Seeing through the mist: an evaluation of an iteratively designed head-up display, using a simulated degraded visual environment, to facilitate rotary-wing pilot situation awareness and workload

Degraded visual conditions present a great challenge to rotary-wing aircraft. These conditions can obscure cues used to interpret speed, location and approach. With such cues obscured, pilots must rely on in-cockpit instrumentation, increasing workload, whilst reducing situation awareness. When operating within degraded visual conditions, pilots require easy access to flight critical information, presented in a way that minimises additional workload and maximises situation awareness. One technology that can be beneficial within such conditions is a head-up display (HUD). This study explores the impact of an iteratively designed HUD on pilots’ workload and situation awareness during the safety-critical descent and landing flight phases, during both clear and degraded visual conditions across a series of simulated trials. Results suggest that access to the HUD facilitated pilot awareness, whilst maintaining workload in all conditions. Results support the view that HUDS are beneficial to rotary-wing pilots, particularly in degraded visual environments.

Interventions to support the management of work-related stress (WRS) and wellbeing/mental health issues for commercial pilots

Research indicates that sources of work-related stress (WRS) impact on the physical, social, and psychological health of pilots. Furthermore, specific features of the job can increase a pilot’s risk in relation to developing a mental health (MH) issue. It is impossible to remove all stress from the work life of pilots. A high stress situation may not necessarily be detrimental to the person, once they have learned to cope with it in a healthy manner. Nonetheless, risk pertaining to WRS need to be effectively managed by a pilot’s employer. Therefore, it is important to identify solutions at an airline and pilot self-management level. This paper reports on the findings of human factors research undertaken with commercial pilots pertaining to work-related stress (WRS) and its impact on wellbeing, performance, and safety. The findings of a series of co-design workshops and a follow-up anonymous survey were analysed to identify potential solutions at (1) an airline and (2) pilot self-management level. Potential solutions are framed in relation to six impact scenarios. Furthermore, they are located within the existing regulatory framework, including the latest implementation rules (IR), acceptable means of compliance (ACM), and guidance material (GM) as outlined by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA 2019). Proposed interventions should promote wellbeing and positive mental health while also addressing suffering and mental ill health. Airline interventions might focus on enhancing existing Safety Management System (SMS) approaches to better manage risks pertaining to WRS, advancing new tools to enable wellbeing briefing, risk assessment, and reporting, and training pilots in relation to MH awareness, risk identifying behaviour, and coping strategies. Furthermore, new role/functions might be introduced to support the implementation and management of WRS/wellbeing/MH safety/risk processes at an airline level. Requirements for new digital tools to support pilot awareness of WRS/wellbeing/MH, self-management of WRS/wellbeing/MH and risk identification both inside and outside the cockpit are also proposed. Some of recommendations arising in this research require changes to the existing rule-making and/or modification to existing AMC and GM.

Examining the Perception and Effectiveness of a System Awareness Briefing During Cruise Flight

Automation has increased the safety of air transportation by assisting pilots during periods of high workload and during critical phases of flight. However, an unintended consequence of automation proliferation has been the reduction in attention resulting from its use. Prior research has shown that during periods of high automation and low workload, pilots’ minds begin to wander and occupy themselves with thoughts other than the current task at hand. This research involved conducting four separate studies addressing the following research questions: 1) Would the use of a system awareness briefing result in the general public being more willing to fly on commercial airlines? 2) Do student pilots support the use of a system awareness briefing? and 3) Does a system awareness briefing actually improve pilot awareness of automation and aircraft parameters during cruise flight? The results from Studies 1 and 2 indicated participants preferred flying with a pilot who was using the system awareness briefing compared to a pilot not using the briefing. The findings from Study 3 did not reveal any significant differences between pilots who used the system awareness briefing versus those that did not. In Study 4, pilots who used the system awareness briefing were more accurate in reporting current heading, fuel flow, and electrical volts, compared to pilots who did not use the briefing. They also reported that they felt more situational awareness compared to the control group. Keywords: system awareness briefing; experimental research; automation; training

Dissociation Between Mental Workload, Performance, and Task Awareness in Pilots of High Performance Aircraft

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate how the inclusion of a tactical task goal awareness measure complemented mental workload and performance measures in a simulated air combat mission. It was hypothesized that the evaluation of the tactical task goal awareness could provide additional information concerning the cognitive demands a pilot is exposed to during a complex air combat task. A test setting was developed to test this hypothesis in a virtual flight training device. To highlight the impact of task complexity, high performance aircraft pilots' heart rate (HR), interbeat-interval (IBI), and performance in two simple flying tasks were first compared. Then, a similar comparison, complemented with the tactical task goal awareness measure, was made with two complex flying tasks. It was found that when the pilot's awareness of the tactical goals was low, a combination of low performance and low mental workload occurred. It was concluded that when the pilots' performance is evaluated on a complex air combat task, the awareness of the tactical goals, performance, and mental workload should be studied together as the pilot's awareness can explain some of HR/IBI responses that could be otherwise misinterpreted. More generally, mental workload, performance, and task goal awareness should all be considered when the operator's performance in any complex human-machine system is assessed.

Use of Highways in the Sky and a virtual pad for landing Head Up Display symbology to enable improved helicopter pilots situation awareness and workload in degraded visual conditions

Flight within degraded visual conditions is a great challenge to pilots of rotary-wing craft. Environmental cues typically used to guide interpretation of speed, location and approach can become obscured, forcing the pilots to rely on data available from in-cockpit instrumentation. To ease the task of flight during degraded visual conditions, pilots require easy access to flight critical information. The current study examined the effect of ‘Highways in the Sky’ symbology and a conformal virtual pad for landing presented using a Head Up Display (HUD) on pilots’ workload and situation awareness for both clear and degraded conditions across a series of simulated rotary-wing approach and landings. Results suggest that access to the HUD lead to significant improvements to pilots’ situation awareness, especially within degraded visual conditions. Importantly, access to the HUD facilitated pilot awareness in all conditions. Results are discussed in terms of future HUD development.Practitioner Summary: This paper explores the use of a novel Heads Up Display, to facilitate rotary-wing pilots’ situation awareness and workload for simulated flights in both clear and degraded visual conditions. Results suggest that access to HUD facilitated pilots’ situation awareness, especially when flying in degraded conditions.

Managing the risks: An analysis of bird strike reporting at Part 139 Airports in Indiana 2001-2014

Purpose: The purpose of the current study was fourfold: to identify bird strike reporting trends at Part 139 airports in Indiana (2001-2014) for comparison to national data; to determine which quarter of the year yields the most bird strike data; to gain a clearer understanding of the relationship between altitude and bird strikes, and to develop information based upon the data analyzed that can be used for the safety management of birds including comparisons to national data. Design/methodology: The researchers in this study answered the research questions by reviewing, sorting, and analyzing existing data. The data collection took place from March 01 to May 02, 2016. Two data sets were utilized for data collection. The National Wildlife Strike Database (NWSD) and the FAA Air Traffic Activity System (ATADS).Findings: When compared to national data, Indiana Part 139 airports have seen a faster increase in bird strike reporting during 2012 and 2014. Aggregate data indicated June through September (Quarter 3) had a significantly higher frequency of bird strikes reported. When examining bird strikes and altitude of occurrences, the exponential equation explained 95 % of the variation in number of strikes by 1,000-foot intervals from 1000 to 10,000 feet. Not surprisingly, the risk of bird strikes appears to decrease as altitude increases.Originality/value: This study adds to the body of knowledge by addressing the lack of published bird strike report analyses at a regional level. It also connects data analyses to safety management system (SMS) concepts and Wildlife Hazards Management Programs (WHMP). The aviation community can use regional bird strike data and information to develop or enhance existing wildlife hazard management programs, increase pilot awareness, and offers airport managerial implications.

Large-Scale Analysis of Aircraft Transponder Data

The increasing congestion of commercial airspaces necessitated more efficient air traffic control (ATC) methods. The Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) protocol is at the heart of the next-generation of ATC systems and is currently being rolled out in most countries. With ADS-B, an aircraft determines its own position by using global navigation satellite systems and broadcasts it periodically over the 1090-MHz radio frequency to ground stations or other aircraft in proximity. This approach increases the accuracy of aircraft localization and enables lower separation requirements and improved situational awareness for pilots and controllers. At the same time, it is supposed to significantly reduce the costs of air traffic surveillance compared with former independent surveillance radar systems.

Safety assessment of RNP AR approach procedures

The required navigation performance authorisation required (RNP AR) approach, which is one of the performance-based navigation procedures, enables safer and efficient flight operations in busy and challenging mountainous areas. The RNP system increases situational awareness of pilots because of including monitoring and alerting service on board and ensuring lateral track accuracy of up to ± 0.1 NM. In this study, RNP AR approach (RNP AR APCH) procedures which will be a solution to prevent controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) accidents are defined. CFIT accidents mostly occur in the approach and landing phase of flights because of the lack of precision approaches. Moreover, flight operational safety assessment (FOSA) methodology published for only RNP AR APCH procedures is assessed. The FOSA is a significant part of the operational authorisation for RNP AR APCH procedures and also is applied to evaluate particular cases and could be useful method for mitigating the risk of CFIT.

Flight Anomaly Tracking for Improved Situational Awareness: Case Study of Germanwings Flight 9525

Surveillance technologies play an important role in civil aviation safety by providing situational awareness to air traffic controllers and pilots. Tens of thousands of aircrafts operate daily, and each one of them needs to be tracked by combining data from several data sources including ADS-B and radar data for maintaining the safety of airspace. These heterogeneous data sources are aggregated together with schedule and flight status data from airlines and airports. This aggregate data is used to provide appropriate flight tracking of individual aircrafts and helps ensuring that the air traffic operates with maximum safety and minimum delays. This is achieved by a complex system of command centers, control towers, radar ground stations, and automated surveillance equipment. As air travel grows each year, global aviation safety continues to improve thanks to these sophisticated systems. Yet, it is unrealistic to expect that the system would detect, identify and respond to all flight anomalies. As was the case in Germanwings flight 9525, the flight anomalies that are not detected in time may result in catastrophes. This paper analyzes the unfortunate case of Germanwings flight 9525 and proposes an automated flight anomaly detection technology to improve situational awareness for air traffic controllers and pilots, and enhance aviation safety.