Abstracts

Display Formats for Smart Glasses to Support Pilots in General Aviation

by Paul Manuel Haiduk




Institution: Technische Universitt Darmstadt
Department:
Year: 1343
Posted: 02/01/2018
Record ID: 2215827
Full text PDF: http://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/6650/


Abstract

This dissertation develops and evaluates various display formats for smart glasses which could provide information to support pilots in general aviation on ights under visual ight rules. The aim of a new display format is the reduction of pilot task load and the increase of pilot situation awareness. Under visual ight rules, pilots apply rules known as see-and-avoid. However, the monitoring of airspace conicts with information acquisition from head-down instrumentation. Conventional displays may drive the pilots attention head-down at the expense of monitoring the scene outside, which has the potential to lead to breakdowns in task management. One of the main reasons for accidents is human error (84% in GA), which is associated with an increased workload resulting in a loss of situation awareness. One way to prevent accidents is to reduce workload to an adequate level and to increase situation awareness; the projection of supporting information in the head-up area could be one to do so. A proposed solution is the use of smart glasses, which project the most important information directly into the eld of view. This dissertation is the only research work in the eld that scientically investigates the feasibility and utility of display formats for smart glasses for use in the cockpit of general aviation.The EPSON Moverio BT-200 smart glasses are selected based on set requirements for integration within the research ight simulator Diamond DA 40-180 at the Institute of Flight Systems and Automatic Control. Four different display formats are implemented and tested with regard to subjective- workload and usability in a preliminary simulator study with N = 7 participants. The results of the preliminary investigation show that the developed Primary Flight Display format has the highest usability and is therefore selected for further development. The Primary Flight Display format is further developed with consideration of the user feedback from the preliminary study. A new ight guidance symbology for lateral guidance, called Lateral Guidance Line (LGL), is designed and added to the format. A magenta colored line in the center of the format supports the pilot in maintaining track. The lateral guidance symbology is designed to show when to initiate a turn and when the turn should be completed in order to minimize deviations from a desired track (e.g. trafc pattern). In the nal evaluation, the LGL format is evaluated with N = 20 pilots. In addition to assessing the subjective- usability and workload, the lateral deviations from a given ight path are recorded.Spatial awareness is operationalized through eye-tracking and a secondary reaction task using visual signals. Pilots y twice, once with the LGL format on the smart glasses and once with conventional instruments without smart glasses at two different airelds in a balanced order. The effectiveness of the Lateral Guidance Line display format can be conrmed.The lateral deviations from the target trajectory are signicantly lower in the groupAdvisors/Committee Members: Klingauf, Uwe (advisor), Josef, Wiemeyer (advisor).