Human Factors in Aeronautics (1/5) Topic: Analysis of mental workload and stress in pilots during actual flight ISAE Contributors: Frédéric Dehais; Mickael Causse; Fabrice Cauchard Challenge: Human factors in aeronautics studies target to improve the safety of flight by understanding the discrepancy between the objective reality and the perception by the human operator (pilot, controller…). The research activity consists in: •Developing the appropriate means to quantify and measure the operator perception and reactions •Developing the potential countermeasures to recover the correct perception and insure the appropriate reaction 26-27/04/2012 DRAFT

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Human Factors in Aeronautics (2/5) ISAE developed the capability to acquire and interpret physiological parameters to measure the workload and the stress of an operator: •Heartbeat measurement (e.g. of experiment: analysis of the correlations of the stress and workload of a pilot vs. its heartbeat)

•Eye Tracking Analysis - Measurement of the pupil diameter modifications - Tracking of the eye position

ISAE Eye Tracking System - Source: ISAE

(e.g. of experiment: characterization of the attentional bias behavior of a stressed pilot, and analysis of a variety of countermeasure – see next slides)

•Cerebral activity measurement - Experiments by fMRI or electroencephalogram (e.g. of experiment: correlation of the “risk taking” behavior versus the neurological activity) From real environment to simulation- Source: ISAE

26-27/04/2012 DRAFT

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Human Factors in Aeronautics (3/5) Various ISAE means were used as experimental environment: • Desktop simulator • Three-axis mobile simulator • Flight tests • Drone control interface

ISAE Mobile simulator cockpit - Source: ISAE

UAVs and land mobile robots designed at ISAE – Source ISAE Identification of the AOI in the cockpit of an ISAE light aircraft – Source ISAE

26-27/04/2012 DRAFT

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Human Factors in Aeronautics (4/5) Example of project: identification of pilot attentional bias in adverse flying condition and analysis of possible countermeasures Experiments (fly simulation and flight tests) were prepared to induce and characterized the phenomenon: 1. Definition of the global and local AOI (areas of interaction: various displays zones of the cockpit interface) 2. Define metrics to quantify eye movements (thanks to previous similar experiments) 3. Prepare flight scenarios able to induce the intentional bias behavior: e.g. of cockpit AOI - Source: ISAE e.g. introduction of alarms in adverse fly conditions 4. Experiments with several categories of pilots: variety of age and experience 26-27/04/2012 DRAFT

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Human Factors in Aeronautics (5/5) Example of project: identification of pilot attentional bias in adverse flying condition and analysis of possible countermeasures (Con’t) The reaction of the pilot was measured, with a large variety of results. The attentional bias behavior was clearly identified, with a delay or an absence of reaction of the pilot to the alarm. Countermeasures were introduce and their efficiency compared.

Textual (a) vs. avatar (b) countermeasures - Source: ISAE

26-27/04/2012 DRAFT

www.isae.fr

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