Ulrika Ohlander

Elements of team effectiveness: A qualitative study with pilots

Fighter pilots performing air missions rely heavily on teamwork for successful outcomes. Designing systems that support such teamwork in highly dynamic missions is a challenging task, and to the best of our knowledge, current teamwork models are not specifically adapted for this domain. This paper presents a model of task performance for military fighter pilots based on the teamwork model “Big Five” proposed by Salas, Sims, and Burke [1]. The “Big Five” model consists of eight teamwork elements that are essential for successful team performance. In-depth interviews were performed with fighter pilots to explore and describe the teamwork elements for the fighter aircraft domain. The findings from these interviews are used to suggest where in the task cycle of mission performance each teamwork element comes in to play.

User Participation in the Design of Cockpit Interfaces

This paper investigates the nature of user participation in the process of designing fighter aircraft cockpits. The role of the users, i.e. pilots, in the design of cockpit interfaces is explored. We present the results of an on-line questionnaire with twelve designers of cockpit interfaces for fighter aircraft. The results show that the designers have highlighted the need for more opportunities to observe the pilots, and they wish to obtain more information and ideas from them. Moreover, a larger involvement from users as examiners and testers in the evaluation process was desirable. Access to users was considered unproblematic and the risk of misunderstandings was reported to be low. Moreover, the designers did not support the idea that users should design or take design decisions.

A Teamwork Model for Fighter Pilots

Fighter pilots depend on collaboration and teamwork to perform successful air missions. However, such collaboration is challenging due to limitations in communication and the amount of data that can be shared between aircraft. In order to design future support systems for fighter pilots, this paper aims at characterizing how pilots collaborate while performing real-world missions. Our starting point is the “Big Five” model for effective teamwork, put forth by Salas et al. [1]. Fighter pilots were interviewed about their teamwork, and how they prepare and perform missions in teams. The results from the interviews were used to describe how pilots collaborate in teams, and to suggest relationships between the teamwork elements of the “Big Five” model for fighter pilots performing missions. The results presented in this paper are intended to inform designers and developers of cockpit displays, data links and decision support systems for fighter aircraft.

Informing the Design of Fighter Aircraft Cockpits Using a Teamwork Perspective

We describe a research process where fighter pilots’ behaviors were investigated from a teamwork perspective and the findings conveyed to the designers of cockpit interfaces in order to improve the fighter aircraft system. The teamwork perspective was selected because fighter aircraft are complex systems that require an advanced and trained pilot, who also, in addition to managing the aircraft systems needs to be a team player, collaborating with team members during dynamic and fast-paced circumstances to achieve the mission goals. A generic theoretical model for effective teamwork was selected as a starting point and a survey was conducted in order to investigate how fighter pilots collaborate during missions. The teamwork model and the survey results were then presented at workshops with designers of cockpit interfaces participating. The focus on the workshops was pilot teamwork and several design ideas aiming at improving the system for collaboration were generated.

System Characteristics and Contextual Constraints for Future Fighter Decision Support

Research on decision support systems for fighter aircraft has to regard future manned and unmanned cooperating aircraft. This paper highlights system characteristics and contextual constraints to guide research as well as system development. Long term trends have been identified for the domain that has to be coped with, including the transformation of the fighter pilot from pilot to tactical decision maker. Automation strategies have to be developed to support manned and unmanned aircraft in a joint cognitive system. For instance, for intelligent fighter pilot support, for distributed unmanned and manned decision making, function allocation has to be concerned. For function allocation it is important not only to regard which agent is best at performing a task but also to regard the risk/cost of performing a task in this kind of potentially hazardous context.

A Cognitive Systems Engineering Perspective on Fighter Cockpit Design Evaluation

In this paper a method for evaluating fighter aircraft cockpit design solutions is suggested, taking into account the specific needs and limitations that come from working in the context of developing modern fighter aircraft cockpit design. In this context flight simulators are an essential tool for evaluation. A general problem when using simulators for evaluations is the amount of data generated, and how to approach this data. There is a need to develop methods to manage the data and extract relevant data in order to make it usable in the design and development process. The approaches described also aim at connecting the simulator data to the overall joint goals of the pilot-fighter-aircraft system in accordance with the CSE approach to systems development.