Relative Effectiveness of Audio Tools for Fighter Pilots in Simulated Operational Flights: A Human Factors Approach
Abstract
The French-Australian Collaboration on Emerging Technologies (FACET) investigated appropriate means of delivering situation-awareness into the cockpit of fighter aircraft under simulated operational conditions. Increasing use of audio has been suggested as a means to reduce visual workload, to enhance situation awareness, and mitigate the manual and cognitive demands of HOTAS and existing command-and-display concepts. An open design for the pilot interface should incorporate redundant information in the auditory and other sensory modes, while enabling commands to be delivered through voice or manual control interfaces. However, sensory and cognitive resource competition may still limit delivery of the implicit benefits of such a design. The objective of FACET was to investigate this proposition. Eight military pilots from France and Australia flew four full-mission scenarios in a simulated air combat environment. Auditory signals comprised radio messages, 3-D sounds and alarms, while the pilot's oral responses were verbal responses or direct voice inputs via automatic speech recognition. Some of the signals were drawn from those already in use, but all were selected for their potential to support situation awareness and support visual information, all delivered via a helmet-mounted display. The four scenarios had specific, embedded combinations of events requiring activation of multiple resources. Both planned and unexpected events that were the outcome of human-interface interactions occurred. The pilots behaviour (e.g., tool selection, prioritization, errors) as well as their efficiency in processing inputs and output control were analysed in order to describe their cognitive resource management. Resource competition imposed by the new technologies was analysed. Interviews were also performed after each run. Following the simulation, Repertory Grids were constructed to elicit each pilot's cognitive representation of the control-and-display concepts.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA454885
Entities
People
- Alain Leger
- Corinne Roumes
- James Meehan
- Sylvain Hourlier