David C. Foyle

Taxiway Navigation and Situation Awareness (T-NASA) System: Problem, Design Philosophy, and Description of an Integrated Display Suite for Low-Visibility Airport Surface Operations

An integrated cockpit display suite, the T-NASA (Taxiway Navigation and Situation Awareness) system, is under development for NASAs Terminal Area Productivity (TAP) Low-Visibility Landing and Surface Operations (LVLASO) program. This system has three integrated components: Moving Map -- track-up airport surface display with own-ship, traffic and graphical route guidance; SceneLinked Symbology -- route/taxi information virtually projected via a Head-up Display (HUD) onto the forward scene; and, 3-D Audio Ground Collision Avoidance Warning (GCAW) system -- spatially-localized auditory traffic alerts. In this paper, surface operations in low-visibility conditions, the design philosophy of the T-NASA system, and the TNASA system display components are described.

Human performance modeling in aviation

Goals, Aviation Problems, and Modeling The NASA Human Performance Modeling Project: Goals, Approach, and Overview, D.C. Foyle and B.L. Hooey Using Human Performance Modeling in Aviation, D.C. Foyle and B.L. Hooey Aviation Safety Studies: Taxi Navigation Errors and Synthetic Vision System Operations, B.L. Hooey and D.C. Foyle Application of Individual Modeling Tools to the Aviation Problems Overview of Human Performance Modeling Tools, K. Leiden, M.D. Byrne, K.M. Corker, S.E. Deutsch, C. Lebiere, and C.D. Wickens An ACT-R Approach to Closing the Loop on Computational Cognitive Modeling: Describing Dynamics of Interactive Decision Making and Attention Allocation, M.D. Byrne, A. Kirlik, and M.D. Fleetwood Modeling Pilot Performance With an Integrated Task Network and Cognitive Architecture Approach, C. Lebiere, R. Archer, B. Best, and D. Schunk Air MIDAS: A Closed-Loop Model Framework, K.M. Corker, K. Muraoka, S. Verma, A. Jadhav, and B.F. Gore D-OMAR: An Architecture for Modeling Multitask Behaviors, S.E. Deutsch and R.W. Pew Attention-Situation Awareness (A-SA) Model of Pilot Error, C.D. Wickens, J.S. McCarley, A.L. Alexander, L.C. Thomas, M. Ambinder, and S. Zheng Implications for Modeling and Aviation A Cross-Model Comparison, K. Leiden and B. Best Human Performance Modeling: A Virtual Roundtable Discussion, D.C. Foyle, B.L. Hooey, M.D. Byrne, A. Kirlik, C. Lebiere, R. Archer, K.M. Corker, S.E. Deutsch, R.W. Pew, C.D. Wickens, and J.S. McCarley Advancing the State of the Art of Human Performance Models to Improve Aviation Safety, B.L. Hooey and D.C. Foyle Index

Integration of Cockpit Displays for Surface Operations: The Final Stage of a Human-Centered Design Approach

A suite of cockpit navigation displays for low-visibility airport surface operations has been designed by researchers at NASA Ames Research Center following a human-centered process. This paper reports on the final research effort in this process that examined the procedural integration of these technologies into the flight deck. Using NASA Ames’ high-fidelity Advanced Concepts Flight Simulator, eighteen airline crews completed fourteen low-visibility (RVR 1000’) land-andtaxi scenarios that included both nominal (i.e., hold short of intersections, route amendments) and off-nominal taxi scenarios designed to assess how pilots integrate these technologies into their procedures and operations. Recommendations for integrating datalink and cockpit displays into current and future surface operations are provided.

AN EVALUATION OF THE TAXIWAY NAVIGATION AND SITUATION AWARENESS (T-NASA) SYSTEM IN HIGH-FIDELITY SIMULATION

The effects of an electronic moving map and a HUD on ground taxi performance in reduced visibility were examined in a high-fidelity simulation. Sixteen commercial flight crews completed 21 trials, each consisting of an autoland arrival to Chicago O’Hare and taxi to an apron area. Relative to a baseline (paper-chart only) condition, the EMM/HUD combination increased forward speed by 21%, and reduced navigation errors by nearly 100%. These results, together with workload ratings, situation awareness ratings, analyses of crew interactions, and pilot feedback, provide strong evidence that the combination of head-up symbology and an EMM can substantially improve both the efficiency and the safety of ground operations.

Modeling Pilot Situation Awareness

Introduction The Man–machine Integration Design and Analysis (MIDAS) human performance model was augmented to improve predictions of multi-operator situation awareness (SA). In MIDAS, the environment is defined by situation elements (SE) that are processed by the modeled operator via a series of sub-models including visual attention, perception, and memory. Collectively, these sub-models represent the situation assessment process and determine which SEs are attended to, and comprehended by, the modeled operator. SA is computed as a ratio of the Actual SA (the number of SEs that are detected or comprehended) to the Optimal SA (the number of SEs that are required or desired to complete the task).

Superimposed symbology: Attentional problems and design solutions

This paper reviews recent human factors research studies conducted in the Aerospace Human Factors Research Division at NASA Ames Research Center on superimposed symbology and head-up displays (HUDs). We first identify various performance problems that have been associated with HUD use. Results of experiments that suggest an attentional account of these problems are described. A design solution involving the concept of `scene-linked` HUDs is developed, and an experiment testing the design solution is discussed. 24 refs., 5 figs.

Attentional Effects with Superimposed Symbology: Implications for Head-up Displays (HUD)

Previous research has shown that the presence of head-up display (HUD) symbology containing altitude information improves altitude performance at the cost of terrain path performance, implying that these information sources may not be available for concurrent cognitive processing. In two flight simulation experiments, the influence of attentive field size on this concurrent processing limitation was evaluated. In Experiment 1, a superimposed digital altitude (i.e., HUD) indicator was presented at three distances from a flight-relevant ground track. A control condition eliminated the digital altitude indicator. Altitude symbology improved performance on the altitude maintenance task, but impaired performance on the ground track task only when directly superimposed. Experiment 2 tested a visual masking explanation of the performance trade-off. Irrelevant HUD information yielded identical results to the HUD absent condition, ruling out effects of visual masking. An explanation in which visual/spatial attention cannot be directed to both HUD information and terrain information simultaneously is proposed. The absence of a performance tradeoff when the HUD and the terrain information are not directly superimposed is attributed to a breaking of attentional tunneling on the HUD, possibly due to eye movements.

Modelling Attentional Effects with Head-up Displays

Previous research (McCann, Foyle, & Johnston, 1993) has shown that in a simulated approach to a runway, performance of a choice reaction time task is faster when all relevant information is available on the HUD or in the world, compared to when information has to be acquired from both domains. The present experiment tested two attentional models of these results: attention switching and attention sharing. Removing differential motion cues from the display, so that both the HUD and the world were motionless, attenuated the domain effect. The attenuated difference reflected both slower responses on within-domain trials and faster responses on between-domain trials. We conclude that performance with Head-Up Displays is affected by both attention switching and the degree to which attention is shared between domains.

Pilot Navigation Errors on the Airport Surface: Identifying Contributing Factors and Mitigating Solutions

A taxonomy of navigation errors (pilot deviations) during taxi operations was developed that defines 3 classes of errors: planning, decision, and execution errors. This taxonomy was applied to error data from 2 full-mission simulation studies (Hooey, Foyle, Andre, & Parke, 2000; McCann et al., 1998) that included trials that replicated current-day operations and trials with advanced cockpit technologies including datalink, electronic moving maps (EMM), and head-up displays (HUDs). Pilots committed navigation error s on 17% of current-day operations trials (in low-visibility and night), distributed roughly equally across the 3 error classes. Each error class was associated with a unique set of contributing factor s and mitigating solutions. Planning errors were mitigated by technologies that provided an unambiguous record of the clearance (datalink and the EMM, which possessed a text-based clearance). Decision errors were mitigated by technologies that provided both local and global awareness including information about the distance to and direction of the next turn, current township location, and a graphical depiction of the route (as provided by the EMM and HUD together ). Execution errors were best mitigated by the HUD, which disambiguated the environment and depicted the clear ed taxi route. Implications for technology design and integration are provided.

Field evaluation of T-NASA: taxi navigation and situation awareness system

This paper reports the results of a field evaluation of an advanced taxi navigation and situation awareness (T-NASA) system, aimed at improving the efficiency of aircraft ground taxi operations under low-visibility conditions. T-NASA consists of two main components: 1) a panel-mounted electronic taxi map display and 2) a heads-up scene-linked display (HUD). These components were installed in NASAs B-757 research aircraft and flight tested at Atlantas Hartsfield International Airport, The results clearly demonstrated both the feasibility and effectiveness of the T-NASA system towards improving the efficiency of airport taxi operations, In addition, as a direct result of the evaluation, improvements were made to the design and procedures of the T-NASA system.