title: Simulating extreme environments: Ergonomic evaluation of Chinese pilot performance and heat stress tolerance.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  High-temperatures in the cockpit environment can adversely influence pilot behavior and performance.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the impact of high thermal environments on Chinese pilot performance in a simulated cockpit environment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ten subjects volunteered to participate in the tests under 40°C and 45°C high-temperature simulations in an environmentally controlled chamber. Measures such as grip strength, perception, dexterity, somatic sense reaction, and analytical reasoning were taken. The results were compared to the Combined Index of Heat Stress (CIHS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  CIHS exceeded the heat stress safety limit after 45 min under 40°C, grip strength decreased by 12% and somatic perception became 2.89 times larger than the initial value. In the case of 45°C, CIHS exceeded the safety limit after only 20 min, while the grip strength decreased just by 3.2% and somatic perception increased to 4.36 times larger than the initial value. Reaction and finger dexterity were not statistically different from baseline measurements, but the error rate of analytical reasoning test rose remarkably.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Somatic perception was the most sensitive index to high-temperature, followed by grip strength. Results of this paper may help to improve environmental control design of new fighter cockpit and for pilot physiology and cockpit environment ergonomics research for Chinese pilots.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China.|Department of Integrated Systems Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yinsheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Aviation Medicine Training Center of Air Force, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
authors.forename: Huijuan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.affiliation: Institute of Aviation Medicine of Air Force, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhaosheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Institute of Aviation Medicine of Air Force, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Liyong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Department of Design and Environmental Analysis, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Feathers
authors.affiliation: School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China.|Beijing Institute of Astronautical Systems Engineering, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000337:Aerospace Medicine; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002681:China; D006804:Ergonomics; D000071251:Extreme Environments; D018737:Hand Strength; D006339:Heart Rate; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000070356:Pilots; D011897:Random Allocation; D011930:Reaction Time; D012881:Skin Temperature; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055698:Touch Perception; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Combined Index of Heat Stress (CIHS); Thermal environments; cockpit; perception