scholarly journals Situation Awareness Adaptive Alerting in an Aircraft Cockpit: A Simulator Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Schwerd ◽  
Axel Schulte
Keyword(s):  
Change Detection ◽  
Situation Awareness ◽  
Subjective Rating ◽  
Flight Crew ◽  
Pilot Performance ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Adaptive Support ◽  
Flight Deck ◽  
Random Times ◽  
Change Detection Performance

The goal of this study was to develop an automated cockpit support system that is adaptive to the flight crew’s situation awareness (SA) estimated by online gaze analysis. Flight crew errors are often attributed to low SA. Online measurement of SA could be used to automatically guide the user’s attention for the sake of fewer errors and better performance.An eye-tracking based measure for SA was developed and used for the adaptive generation of alerts in a flight simulator. In an experiment, ten certified pilots conducted two trials with no and adaptive alerting. The experimental task involved tracking of flight parameters which were partially disturbed or changed at random times. Our online estimation of SA showed a strong correlation with observed pilot performance. With adaptive alerts, the average performance increased in those experimental tasks, where a situational change could not be predicted by participants. Also, adaptive alerts improved change detection and reduced the number of outliers, where a change was not noticed for an exceptionally long time. However, subjective rating was poor due to low transparency and false positives. SA-adaptive support can improve change detection performance in typical tasks on the flight deck. For a greater acceptance, pilots should be trained to understand the adaption policy.

Asiana Airlines Flight 214

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Chow ◽  
Stephen Yortsos ◽  
Najmedin Meshkati
Keyword(s):  
Human Factors ◽  
Aviation Safety ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Flight Crew ◽  
Pilot Performance ◽  
Engineering Designs ◽  
Flight Deck

This article focuses on a major human factors–related issue that includes the undeniable role of cultural factors and cockpit automation and their serious impact on flight crew performance, communication, and aviation safety. The report concentrates on the flight crew performance of the Boeing 777–Asiana Airlines Flight 214 accident, by exploring issues concerning mode confusion and autothrottle systems. It also further reviews the vital role of cultural factors in aviation safety and provides a brief overview of past, related accidents. Automation progressions have been created in an attempt to design an error-free flight deck. However, to do that, the pilot must still thoroughly understand every component of the flight deck – most importantly, the automation. Otherwise, if pilots are not completely competent in terms of their automation, the slightest errors can lead to fatal accidents. As seen in the case of Asiana Flight 214, even though engineering designs and pilot training have greatly evolved over the years, there are many cultural, design, and communication factors that affect pilot performance. It is concluded that aviation systems designers, in cooperation with pilots and regulatory bodies, should lead the strategic effort of systematically addressing the serious issues of cockpit automation, human factors, and cultural issues, including their interactions, which will certainly lead to better solutions for safer flights.

scholarly journals Does perceptual grouping improve visuospatial working memory? Optimized processing or encoding bias

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Prieto ◽  
Vanesa Peinado ◽  
Julia Mayas
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Change Detection ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Detection Accuracy ◽  
Visuospatial Working Memory ◽  
Gestalt Grouping ◽  
Color Similarity ◽  
Automatic Encoding ◽  
Change Detection Performance

AbstractVisual working memory has been defined as a system of limited capacity that enables the maintenance and manipulation of visual information. However, some perceptual features like Gestalt grouping could improve visual working memory effectiveness. In two different experiments, we aimed to explore how the presence of elements grouped by color similarity affects the change detection performance of both, grouped and non-grouped items. We combined a change detection task with a retrocue paradigm in which a six item array had to be remembered. An always valid, variable-delay retrocue appeared in some trials during the retention interval, either after 100 ms (iconic-trace period) or 1400 ms (working memory period), signaling the location of the probe. The results indicated that similarity grouping biased the information entered into the visual working memory, improving change detection accuracy only for previously grouped probes, but hindering change detection for non-grouped probes in certain conditions (Exp. 1). However, this bottom-up automatic encoding bias was overridden when participants were explicitly instructed to ignore grouped items as they were irrelevant for the task (Exp. 2).

Flightpath Tracking, Change Detection and Visual Scanning in an Integrated Hazard Display

2005 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy L. Alexander ◽  
Christopher D. Wickens
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
Change Detection ◽  
Detection Performance ◽  
Vertical Dimension ◽  
Visual Scanning ◽  
Flight Instructors ◽  
Detection Response ◽  
Step Down ◽  
Integrated Hazard ◽  
Change Detection Performance

Twenty-four certified flight instructors were required to fly a series of curved, step-down approaches while detecting changes to surrounding traffic aircraft and weather cell icons on two integrated hazard display (IHD) formats (2D coplanar and split-screen) under varying workload levels. Generally, it appears that the 2D coplanar IHD was better in supporting flightpath tracking and change detection performance when compared to a split-screen display. Pilots exhibited superior flightpath tracking (in the vertical dimension, and under low workload) when using the 2D coplanar IHD, although this effect was mitigated by increasing workload such that tracking deteriorated faster with the 2D coplanar than the split-screen display. The spawned 3D cost of diminished size with distance from ownship played a role in change detection response time—pilots were slower (particularly in detecting traffic aircraft changes) with the split-screen compared to the 2D coplanar IHD. These effects will be discussed within the context of visual scanning measures.

Generating an exclusion map for SAR-based flood extent maps using Sentinel-1 time series analysis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Zhao ◽  
Marco Chini ◽  
Ramona Pelich ◽  
Patrick Matgen ◽  
Renaud Hostache ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Change Detection ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Ground Truth ◽  
Detection Methods ◽  
Tree Cover ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Right ◽  
Flood Maps ◽  
Over Time

<p>Change detection has been widely used in many flood-mapping algorithms using pairs of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) intensity images. The rationale is that when the right conditions are met, the appearance of floodwater results in a significant decrease of backscatter.  However, limitations still exist in areas where the SAR backscatter is not sufficiently impacted by surface changes due to floodwater. For example, in shadow areas, the backscatter is stable over time because the SAR signal does not reach the ground due to prominent topography or obstacles on the ground (e.g., buildings). Densely vegetated forest is another insensitive region due to low capability of SAR C-band wavelengths to penetrate its canopy. Moreover, although in principle SAR can sense water over different land cover classes such as arid regions, streets and buildings, the backscatter changes over time could not be detected because in such areas the scattering variation caused by the presence of water might be negligible with respect to the normal “unflooded” state. The identification of the abovementioned areas where SAR does not allow detecting water based on change detection methods, hereafter called exclusion map, is crucial for providing reliable SAR-based flood maps.</p><p>In this study, insensitive areas are identified using long time-series of Sentinel-1 data and the final exclusion map is classified in four distinctive classes: shadow, layover, urban areas and dense forest. In the proposed method the identification of insensitive areas is based on the use of pixel-based time series backscatter statistics (minimum, maximum, median and standard deviation) coupled with a local spatial autocorrelation analysis (i.e. Moran’s I, Getis-Ord Gi and Geary’s C). In order to evaluate the extracted exclusion map, which is quite unique, we employ a comprehensive ground truth dataset that is obtained by combining different products: 1) a shadow/layover map generated using a 25m-resolution DEM and the geometric acquisition parameters of the SAR data; 2) 20m resolution imperviousness map provided by Copernicus, as well as a high-resolution global urban footprint (GUF) data provided by DLR; 3) a 20m tree cover density (TCD) map provided by Copernicus. In the end, the exclusion map is used to mask out unclassified areas in the flood maps derived by an automatic change detection method, which is expected to enhance flood maps by removing areas where the presence or absence of floodwater cannot be evidenced. In addition, we argue that our insensitive area map provides valuable information for improving the calibration, validation and regular updating of hydraulic models using SAR derived flood extent maps.</p>

What we do with Human Factors Data and Theory: A Flight Deck Design Philosophy for the High Speed Civil Transport Aircraft

1994 ◽  
Vol 38 (16) ◽  
pp. 1003-1007
Author(s):  
K. Michael Dresel ◽  
David D. T. Pepitone
Keyword(s):  
High Speed ◽  
System Development ◽  
Current System ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Flight Crew ◽  
Transport Aircraft ◽  
Design Philosophy ◽  
Flight Deck Design ◽  
Human Operators ◽  
Flight Deck

This paper reports on the results and lessons learned from constructing a design philosophy for a new aircraft. The High Speed Civil Transport aircraft is the next-generation supersonic transport, planned for initial operating capability in 2005. Current objectives for the aircraft include cruise speeds of Mach 2.4, ability to take off and land in low visibility, and restricted forward vision. These objectives necessitate consideration of major changes in some of the functions currently allocated to the human flight crew. An explicit design philosophy was defined as the first step in ensuring that system development proceeded with clear emphasis on supporting the human operators in accomplishing the goals of transporting their passengers and cargo safely, comfortably, efficiently and on schedule. This paper discusses the development and details of the integrated flight deck design philosophy that will be used to guide the development of a High Speed Civil Transport flight deck. The paper describes • the goals, scope and benefits of the flight deck design philosophy; • the effect on the current system development process; • the method used to produce the design philosophy; • examples of the philosophy and guideline statements, with rationale; • and finally, suggestions for improving the transfer of basic and applied research into the system design process.

A Preliminary Examination of Situation Awareness and Pilot Performance in a Synthetic Vision Environment

2001 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 40-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie M. Stark ◽  
J. Raymond Comstock ◽  
Lance J. Prinzel ◽  
Daniel W. Burdette ◽  
Mark W. Scerbo
Keyword(s):  
Situation Awareness ◽  
Pilot Performance ◽  
Synthetic Vision ◽  
Preliminary Examination
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