Beyond performance: the role of task demand, effort, and individual differences in ab initio pilots.

Aviation safety depends on the skill and expertise of pilots to meet the task demands of flying an aircraft in an effective and efficient manner. During flight training, students may respond differently to imposed task demands based on individual differences in capacity, physiological arousal, and effort. To ensure that pilots achieve a common desired level of expertise, training programs should account for individual differences to optimize pilot performance. This study investigates the relationship between task performance and physiological correlates of effort in ab initio pilots. Twenty-four participants conducted a flight simulator task with three difficulty levels and were asked to rate their perceived demand and effort using the NASA TLX. We recorded heart rate, EEG brain activity, and pupil size to assess changes in the participants' mental and physiological states across different task demands. We found that, despite group-level correlations between performance error and physiological responses, individual differences in physiological responses to task demands reflected different levels of participant effort and task efficiency. These findings suggest that physiological monitoring of student pilots might provide beneficial insights to flight instructors to optimize pilot training at the individual level.

Airborne Optical and Thermal Remote Sensing for Wildfire Detection and Monitoring.

For decades detection and monitoring of forest and other wildland fires has relied heavily on aircraft (and satellites). Technical advances and improved affordability of both sensors and sensor platforms promise to revolutionize the way aircraft detect, monitor and help suppress wildfires. Sensor systems like hyperspectral cameras, image intensifiers and thermal cameras that have previously been limited in use due to cost or technology considerations are now becoming widely available and affordable. Similarly, new airborne sensor platforms, particularly small, unmanned aircraft or drones, are enabling new applications for airborne fire sensing. In this review we outline the state of the art in direct, semi-automated and automated fire detection from both manned and unmanned aerial platforms. We discuss the operational constraints and opportunities provided by these sensor systems including a discussion of the objective evaluation of these systems in a realistic context.

In-Flight Study of Helmet-Mounted Symbology System Concepts in Degraded Visual Environments.

BACKGROUND: During approach and departure in rotary wing aircraft, a sudden loss of external visual reference precipitates spatial disorientation. METHODS: There were 10 Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Griffon pilots who participated in an in-flight investigation of a 3-dimensional conformal Helmet Display Tracking System (HDTS) and the BrownOut Symbology System (BOSS) aboard an Advanced System Research Aircraft. For each symbology system, pilots performed a two-stage departure followed by a single-stage approach. The presentation order of the two symbology systems was randomized across the pilots. Subjective measurements included situation awareness, mental effort, perceived performance, perceptual cue rating, NASA Task Load Index, and physiological response. Objective performance included aircraft speed, altitude, attitude, and distance from the landing point, control position, and control activity. Repeated measures analysis of variance and planned comparison tests for the subjective and objective responses were performed. RESULTS: For both maneuvers, the HDTS system afforded better situation awareness, lower workload, better perceptual cueing in attitude, horizontal and vertical translation, and lower overall workload index. During the two-stage departure, HDTS achieved less lateral drift from initial takeoff and hover, lower root mean square error (RMSE) in altitude during hover, and lower track error during the acceleration to forward flight. During the single-stage approach, HDTS achieved less error in lateral and longitudinal position offset from the landing point and lower RMSE in heading. DISCUSSION: In both maneuvers, pilots exhibited higher control activity when using HDTS, which suggested that more pertinent information was available to the pilots. Pilots preferred the HDTS system.

The impact of night vision goggles on way-finding performance and the acquisition of spatial knowledge.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the effects of night vision goggles (NVGs) on navigation and way-finding performance and the acquisition of spatial knowledge. BACKGROUND: Although numerous studies have examined the effects of NVGs on visual perception, few have examined the effects of using NVGs on the acquisition and expression of spatial cognition. METHOD: Participants learned the environment through active navigation and way finding, searching for targets within a life-sized maze with or without NVGs. Knowledge of the environment was then tested with two spatial memory tests. RESULTS: Findings show that navigation and way finding with NVGs appear to be harder, as indicated by longer navigation times and additional, unnecessary turns, than they are without NVGs. Moreover, change in navigation performance over the course of the way-finding trials varied as a function of group assignment indicating that NVGs influenced the learning process. NVG users demonstrated a significant decrease in navigation times earlier as well as significant decreases in navigational legs compared with the control group. In judging the positions of objects relative to target objects in different rooms in the maze, performance was better for participants without NVGs than for those with NVGs. In a map-drawing task, participants in the NVG group were more likely to position objects incorrectly and to receive worse scores than the controls. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate that NVGs affected not only spatial navigation and way-finding performance but also the acquisition of spatial knowledge. APPLICATION: These degradations in spatial knowledge should be considered in operational planning and NVG training programs.