Stanislav Szabo

Evaluation of relationship between the activity of upper limb and the piloting precision

Flying an aircraft requires a significant degree of coordination of upper and lower limbs. Such movements tend to be rather uncoordinated in the case of inexperienced pilots which results in inaccurate piloting. The aim of this study is to prove or disprove the dependence of the upper limb activity in relation to the aircraft steering during various actions which are required for precise maneuvering. We also deal with the design of a method to determine the degree of correlation between the movement of the hand and the airplane. The study was conducted on 8 subjects with the same level of experience during 11 hours of flight training on the simulator of type TRD40 and aircraft of type DA40. Subjects performed 14 maneuvers in total. Between takeoff and landing a recurring cycle of four maneuvers has been carried out by the subjects. Repeated maneuvers were in the order from the straight-and-level flight, horizontal turn by 360°, ascend turn by 180°, and descent turn by 180°. Recorded data except for basic flight data (magnetic course, banked and altitude) have been variables depicting the activity of the pilots upper limb. The activity was measured using triaxial accelerometer located on the dorsal side of the distal end of the forearm. The correlation coefficient proved relationship between the upper limb movement and aircraft steering both at bank and altitude. It testifies that change of bank and altitude of aircraft is directly connected with upper limb movements. Resultant activity standard deviation relation correlation coefficient is 0.7.

Belt Damage Aspect to Impact Loading

This paper presents the results of rubber products testing (rubber conveyor belt type P 2000/4, 8+4) with regard to their quality in order to establish the limit value of impact load, i.e. establish the maximum breakdown resistance. Outputs of measurements are in addition to the impact load also duration of impact, size of tension load and determination the effect of the support system for conveyor belts breakdown resistance. Using Design of Experiments method are identified factors that significantly affect the value of the impact load.

Determining importance of physiological parameters and methods of their evaluation for classification of pilots psychophysiological condition

At present, several studies exist describing the relevance of human factor in air transport with main focus on pilots and flight safety. Within such studies, monitoring of physiological functions is used. There are lot of physiological parameters and methods of their assessment; however, they are mostly based on principles originating from clinical practice. Yet, sensitivity and specificity of these methods with regard to assessment of aviation professionals — pilots is unknown. Therefore, this paper is oriented towards description of the most common methods for physiological parameters assessment. The paper also describes evaluation methods, which are on experimental level in terms of physiological data evaluation, namely recurrent quantification analysis. Within the research carried out, sample group of pilots was subjected to measurement for evaluation of their psychophysiological condition and performance. Selected evaluation methods were applied on the collected data and importance of those parameters and methods, which provided best classification for level of psychophysiological stress, was evaluated by means of statistical analyses. The results indicate that the most important physiological parameter for psychophysiological condition assessment of pilots is heart electrical activity where the possibility to perform signal processing whilst preserving its importance is provided by linear methods in the time and frequency domain, or alternatively by non-linear methods utilizing recurrent quantification analysis.

Present and potential security threats posed to civil aviation

Aircraft presents ideal object for terrorist attack. Apart from the risks posed by possible terrorist attacks on airborne aircraft, air terrorism includes the threats to general aviation on the ground, including airports and surrounding infrastructure. Air oriented terrorism in all of its forms can undermine public confidence in the safety of air travel, which could result in negative effects for certain airlines and other firms in aviation industry due to decline in passenger travel and cargo shipment. This article is giving an overview about the redoubtable present and potential future threats posed to in-flight security, and possibilities and solutions how to mitigate the risks on acceptable level.

Intelligent Situational Control of Small Turbojet Engines

Improvements in reliability, safety, and operational efficiency of aeroengines can be brought in a cost-effective way using advanced control concepts, thus requiring only software updates of their digital control systems. The article presents a comprehensive approach in modular control system design suitable for small gas turbine engines. The control system is based on the methodology of situational control; this means control of the engine under all operational situations including atypical ones, also integrating a diagnostic system, which is usually a separate module. The resulting concept has been evaluated in real-world laboratory conditions using a unique design of small turbojet engine iSTC-21v as well as a state-of-the-art small turbojet engine TJ-100. Our results show that such advanced control system can bring operational quality of an engine with old turbocompressor core iSTC-21v on par with state-of-the-art engines.

Aviation Technology Life Cycle Management: Importance for Aviation Companies, Aerospace Industry Organizations and Relevant Stakeholders

The paper in the introductory part underlines some aspects concerning the importance of Aviation Technology Life Cycle Management and informs on basic international standards for the processes and stages of life cycle. The second part is focused on definition and main objectives of system life cycle management. The authors subsequently inform on system life cycle stages (in general) and system life cycle processes according to ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2015 standard. Following the fact, that life cycle cost (LCC) is inseparable part and has direct connection to the life cycle management, the paper contains brief information regarding to LCC (cost categories, cost breakdown structure, cost estimation a.o.). Recently was issued the first part of Aviation Technology Life Cycle Management monograph (in Slovak: ”Manažment životneho cyklu leteckej techniky I”), written by I.Koblen and S.Szabo. Following this fact and direct relation to the topic of article it is a part of article briefly introduced the content of two parts of this monograph (the 2nd part of monograph it has been prepared for the print). The last part of article is focused on issue concerning main assumptions and conditions for successful application of aviation technology life cycle management in aviation companies, aerospace industry organizations as well as from the relevant stakeholders side.

The Dependence of Airport Profit on Passenger Satisfaction and Operational Efficiency

Since the airports are in fact commercial companies, their main objective is to make profit. Therefore, it is important for the airports to identify the business activities that may increase the income as well as those that may reduce the costs. The terminal process, handling the passengers’ baggage both on their departure and arrival, is a basic process at all airports that are intended for the commercial air transport. The quality of the terminal process provided by the airports has a significant impact on the passengers especially in terms of their satisfaction. In this text, the passenger satisfaction is regarded as a key factor of the terminal process affecting a whole range of other areas. Its high efficiency leads to cost reduction from the perspective of the airport. As it is proposed here, there is a connection between the passenger satisfaction and the process efficiency. For example, the queues that form due to the check-in process may be a result of the imbalance between the passenger arrival rate and the service rate. Therefore, there is a necessity of improving not only the passenger satisfaction but also the process efficiency.

Prediction of atrial fibrillation and its successful termination based on recurrence quantification analysis of ECG

Atrial fibrillation ranks among the most common heart rhythm disorders. Considering the lack of any trusted method capable of foreseeing possible recurrence of atrial fibrillation after it has been terminated, nonlinear analyses of beat-to-beat heart rate variability demonstrate promising potential. This work focuses on verifying the capability of the nonlinear methods to differentiate patients with early recurrence of atrial fibrillation from those with stable normal sinus rhythm after cardioversion. Both patients groups underwent the active-standing test involving ECG measurement. Recurrence quantification analysis was used to evaluate sequences of intervals between two consecutive heart beats. The data were derived from body surface ECG signal. The results selected those parameters capable of identification of patient groups during the initial phase of the active-standing test prior to cardioversion.

Examination of EGNOS Safety-of-Live service in Eastern Slovakia

Abstract The first PBN approach procedures in Slovakia became operationally effective at Bratislava and Košice airports as of 5 February 2015. The article presents the results of EGNOS Safety-of-Life Service preliminary examination in eastern Slovakia, just before official introduction of these procedures. The practical examination includes static test and test flight made with Cessna plane taking off at the airport in Bidovce — LZBD (just 16 km from international airport in Košice) and passing a route along eastern border of Slovakia. In this region the performance of EGNOS could be unsatisfactory due to lack of RIMS stations to the east from there. The experiment was performed on October 13, 2014 in cooperation of the Air Force Academy in Deblin, the Department of Aviation of Technical University in Košice and University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn.

EVALUATING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN THE SPHERE OF TELECOMUNICATION SERVICES IN SLOVAKIA

Purpose: The contribution is a treatise on the issue of quality of the telecommunication services, assessing services of mobile phone operators active in the Slovak market. Based on a survey, it presents evaluation of customer satisfaction with the services provided by the Telefonica Slovakia, Ltd. operating under the trademark of O2. Methodology: In this article, we have shown the possibilities for evaluating customer satisfaction in the telecommunications field. For assessing satisfaction of hundred respondents included in this study, we used a questionnaire in accordance with the Likert’s format. Findings: The results shows, although O2 is the shortest time in the Slovak market compared to other providers, that the customers are globally satisfied with the services provided. The questionnaire-based survey has clearly also shown the areas where the Telefonica Slovakia, Ltd. still has to improve and focus its marketing strategy. Value of paper: The main contribution of the article is pointing out to the ways to approach the evaluation of customer satisfaction in the field of customer services, which may yield innovative marketing strategies of a companies.