Ioana Koglbauer

Drivers’ Interaction with Adaptive Cruise Control on Dry and Snowy Roads with Various Tire-Road Grip Potentials

This study investigates drivers’ interaction with Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) in different road conditions and identifies areas of improvement. Ninety-six drivers drove with the ACC in a driving simulator showing either a summer scenery and a dry road with high grip potential or a winter scenery with a snowy road and reduced grip potential. The results show that on snowy roads the drivers set in average a lower ACC speed and preferred a larger ACC time gap. Drivers’ workload and effort were higher when using the ACC on snowy as compared to dry roads. Generally, the use of a shorter ACC gap resulted in lower ratings of comfort, safety, and trust and higher ratings of mental workload and effort in both dry and snowy road conditions. The drivers judged that ACC was braking too late and maintained a too short gap to the forward vehicle, especially when the ACC was set to 1 second as compared to a 1.8-second time gap. A future adaptation of ACC’s control strategy to reduced tire-road grip potential would not only improve comfort and user acceptance of the human driver but also increase the potential to react in emergency situations with braking or evasive steering.

What’s Real About Virtual Reality Flight Simulation?

With the help of immersive virtual reality technology, novel cockpit systems can be evaluated with pilots in an early design phase. This comparative study investigates the functional fidelity of a virtual reality flight simulator (VRFS) in comparison with a conventional flight simulator. Pilots’ movement time to reach cockpit controls, deviation from the ideal flight path, workload, and simulator sickness are evaluated using an operational scenario. The results show statistically significant differences in heading, altitude, and flight path, as well as delays in operating the controls in virtual reality. Yet, most participants could safely and reliably complete the flight task. For use cases in which adaptations to pace, exposure time, and flight task are acceptable, which is often the case in early phases of the design process, VRFSs can be viable tools for human factors engineering.

Can You Understand and Predict How People Perform in an Aviation Environment?Martinussen,M. & Hunter, D.R. Aviation Psychology and Human Factors (2nd ed.) Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017, ISBN 978-1-4987-5752-2, Prices US

Even if you can answer the title question with “yes,” this 2nd, new edition of the book Aviation Psychology and Human Factors is an enjoyable lecture and brings a refreshing perspective of new research finding and trends. The book covers classical and new topics necessary for understanding and predicting the human behavior in the cockpit and other aviation environments. I use this book and I used the first edition too, as a major reference for academic teaching at Graz University of Technology in the advanced master program on “Aviation Safety – Traffic Accident Research” and for teaching courses in the Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL) and Type Rating Instructor (TRI) programs for the aviation industry. The authors Monica Martinussen and David Hunter have an extensive experience in academic and applied fields and thus, the book is equally useful to a wide range of aviation and non-aviation professionals from the academia, research, and operations (e.g., pilots, instructors, managers). The new outside activities and additional references make the book even more useful for teaching and the reading is more interactive, enjoyable and informative. The book communicates what the evidence shows in different areas and has a chapter on research methods. Information that is subject to multiple books and studies is provided in a concise and easy to read manner.