Response Equivocation Analysis for the Smart Stick Controller

Abstract

This thesis provides an analysis of response equivocation (lost information) for subjects who use the smart stick controller -- an aircraft stick controller designed by the Armstrong Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory (AAMRL) to improve a pilot's tracking performance. First, a control theory model of a compensatory tracking task is developed and analyzed. Then, using an information theory model of the pilot, the results are used to develop expressions for information theory parameters (input entropy, transinformation, and equivocation). Six subjects were tested using the smart stick controller and experimental an apparatus developed by the AAMRL. Each subject was tested twice: first in the passive stick mode (normal stick operation), and again in the active stick mode. In the active stick mode, the smart stick actively exerts a force in the direction opposite to the desired stick motion. Power spectral densities of the display error and the operator response were used to calculate the information theory parameters.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 1988
Accession Number
ADA203146

Entities

People

  • John M. Pracher

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Aircrafts
  • Biomedical Research
  • Central Nervous System
  • Computers
  • Control Systems
  • Control Theory
  • Data Analysis
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Engineering
  • Equations
  • Frequency
  • Information Processing
  • Information Theory
  • Nervous System
  • Probability Density Functions
  • Transfer Functions

Readers

  • Radio communications and signal processing.
  • Robotics and Automation.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Spacecraft Maneuvers