Synthetic Vision Enhanced Surface Operations With Head-Worn Display for Commercial Aircraft

Efficiency and safety of airport surface operations can be enhanced by using synthetic vision and associated technologies, employed on a head-up display (HUD) combined with a head-down display electronic moving map. Past research has noted that 2 major limitations of HUDs during ground operations were its monochrome form and its limited, fixed field of regard. These limitations can be overcome with the use of a head-worn display (HWD). This article describes the results of a simulation experiment that showed that a fully integrated HWD concept provided significantly improved path performance compared to using paper charts alone. When comparing the HWD and HUD concepts, there were no differences found for path performance or subjective ratings of workload and marginally significant differences found for reported situation awareness and pilot comments of perceived system safety. Implications and directions for future research are described.

[1]  M. Gresty.  Coordination of head and eye movements to fixate continuous and intermittent targets. , 1974, Vision research.

[2]  Christopher D. Wickens,et al.  Pathway HUDs: Are They Viable? , 2001, Hum. Factors.

[3]  Randall E. Bailey,et al.  Design and testing of an unlimited field-of-regard synthetic vision head-worn display for commercial aircraft surface operations , 2007, SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing.

[4]  Randall E. Bailey,et al.  Flight simulator evaluation of display media devices for synthetic vision concepts , 2004, SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing.

[5]  Becky L. Hooey,et al.  HEAD-UP DISPLAY SYMBOLOGY FOR SURFACE OPERATIONS: COMPARISONS AMONG SCENE-LINKED SYMBOLOGY SETS FOR OPTIMUM TURN NAVIGATION , 1999 .

[6]  Anthony D. Andre,et al.  Enhancing Taxi Performance under Low Visibility: Are Moving Maps Enough? , 1997 .

[7]  W. G. Cochran.  Some Methods for Strengthening the Common χ 2 Tests , 1954 .

[8]  Becky L. Hooey,et al.  Pilot Navigation Errors on the Airport Surface: Identifying Contributing Factors and Mitigating Solutions , 2006 .

[9]  Michael Venturino,et al.  The Effect of Increasing Task Complexity on the Field-of-View Requirements for a Visually Coupled System , 1989 .

[10]  Becky L. Hooey,et al.  IMPROVING EVALUATION AND SYSTEM DESIGN THROUGH THE USE OF OFF-NOMINAL TESTING: A METHODOLOGY FOR SCENARIO DEVELOPMENT , 2003 .

[11]  David C. Foyle,et al.  Enhanced/Synthetic Vision Systems: Human Factors Research and Implications for Future Systems , 1992 .

[12]  E. Peli.  Visual issues in the use of a head-mounted monocular display , 1990 .

[13]  Clarence E. Rash,et al.  Helmet-Mounted Displays: Design Issues for Rotary-Wing Aircraft , 2001 .

[14]  Mordekhai Velger.  Helmet-Mounted Displays and Sights , 1998 .

[15]  David C. Foyle,et al.  Attentional Issues with Superimposed Symbology: Formats for Scene-Linked Displays , 1995 .

[16]  Randall E. Bailey,et al.  Latency requirements for head-worn display S/EVS applications , 2004, SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing.

[17]  Michael A. Vidulich,et al.  Testing a Subjective Metric of Situation Awareness , 1991 .

[18]  Michael Venturino,et al.  Performance and head movements using a helmet-mounted display with different sized fields-of-view , 1990 .

[19]  Anthony D. Andre,et al.  Integration of Cockpit Displays for Surface Operations: The Final Stage of a Human-Centered Design Approach , 2000 .

[20]  A.D. Andre,et al.  Field evaluation of T-NASA: taxi navigation and situation awareness system , 1998, 17th DASC. AIAA/IEEE/SAE. Digital Avionics Systems Conference. Proceedings (Cat. No.98CH36267).

[21]  M. Endsley.  Situation Awareness In Aviation Systems , 1999 .

[22]  Denise R Jones,et al.  A SYSTEM FOR PREVENTING RUNWAY INCURSIONS. , 2002 .

[23]  H. Ruff,et al.  Evaluation of Eye-Dominance Effects on Target-Acquisition Tasks Using a Head-Coupled Monocular Hmd , 2001 .

[24]  Thomas H. Harding,et al.  The Effect of Helmet Mounted Display Field-of-View Configurations on Target Acquisition. , 1999 .

[25]  Ron F. K. Merryman.  Vista Sabre II: integration of helmet-mounted tracker/display and high off-boresight missile seeker into F-15 aircraft , 1994, Defense, Security, and Sensing.

[26]  Randall E. Bailey,et al.  Evaluation of head-worn display concepts for commercial aircraft taxi operations , 2007, SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing.

[27]  M. A. Vidulich,et al.  The Use of Judgment Matrices in Subjective Workload Assessment: The Subjective Workload Dominance (SWORD) Technique , 1989 .

[28]  Becky L. Hooey,et al.  A Post-Hoc Analysis of Navigation Errors During Surface Operations: Identification of Contributing Factors and Mitigating Solutions , 2002 .

[29]  Anthony D. Andre,et al.  Taxiway Navigation and Situation Awareness (T-NASA) System: Problem, Design Philosophy, and Description of an Integrated Display Suite for Low-Visibility Airport Surface Operations , 1996 .

[30]  Barbara G. Kanki,et al.  An Evaluation of the Taxiway Navigation and Situation Awareness (T-NASA) System in High-Fidelity Simulation , 1998 .

[31]  Victor H. L. Cheng,et al.  A study of aircraft taxi performance for enhancing airport surface traffic control , 2001, IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst..

[32]  Herman Rediess.  An augmented reality pilot display for airport operations under low and zero visibility conditions , 1997 .