title: Modeling human pilot cue utilization with applications to simulator fidelity assessment.
abstract: An analytical investigation to model the manner in which pilots perceive and utilize visual, proprioceptive, and vestibular cues in a ground-based flight simulator was undertaken. Data from a NASA Ames Research Center vertical motion simulator study of a simple, single-degree-of-freedom rotorcraft bob-up/down maneuver were employed in the investigation. The study was part of a larger research effort that has the creation of a methodology for determining flight simulator fidelity requirements as its ultimate goal. The study utilized a closed-loop feedback structure of the pilot/simulator system that included the pilot, the cockpit inceptor, the dynamics of the simulated vehicle, and the motion system. With the exception of time delays that accrued in visual scene production in the simulator, visual scene effects were not included in this study. Pilot/vehicle analysis and fuzzy-inference identification were employed to study the changes in fidelity that occurred as the characteristics of the motion system were varied over five configurations. The data from three of the five pilots who participated in the experimental study were analyzed in the fuzzy-inference identification. Results indicate that both the analytical pilot/vehicle analysis and the fuzzy-inference identification can be used to identify changes in simulator fidelity for the task examined.
authors.affiliation: University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zeyada
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Hess
mesh_terms: D000337:Aerospace Medicine; D000401:Aircraft / Q000295:instrumentation; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology; D001359:Aviation; D003198:Computer Simulation; D017143:Fuzzy Logic; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009038:Motion; D011434:Proprioception / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D014722:Vestibule, Labyrinth / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*