Research Focus Areas
Human Performance Research
The emphasis of this research area is on developing and validating models
of pilot performance in the following areas, each described in terms of
the research questions that are asked.
Visual information processing and visual displays
How does the pilot integrate information from the visual world outside
the aircraft, as well as from flight instruments, necessary to support
low level flight and aircraft landing? How can synthetic electronic displays
be designed to best facilitate information integration by capitalizing
on three-dimensional geometry, texture, motion, and color? How can computational
models of human performance predict the ideal layout and integration of
flight instruments to support low level flight?
Spatial awareness
How can the pilots' understanding of aircraft attitude and position over
ground be modeled? How can this understanding be best supported by electronic
navigation aids (e.g., electronic maps, predictive displays, outside-in
perspective, terrain and weather representation)? The issues posed in
1) and 2) are also addressed in our program from the perspective of the
air traffic controller.
Attention, workload and performance measurement
What are the appropriate models that will predict how the multiple tasks
performed by the pilot will interfere with each other, and that will predict
the impact of design changes (e.g., introduction of voice recognition
and synthesis technology, or automation)? What are the optimal techniques
for assessing mental workload? What are the relative costs and benefits
of using pilot opinion ratings for this assessment?
Pilot judgment
What are the information processing components that underlie pilot decision
making? How are these components affected by training? By individual differences?
And by situational stressors?
Individual differences and prediction
A series of investigations have focused on the measurement of human performance
abilities through information processing test batteries, and the relevance
of those abilities to individual differences in aviation-relevant tasks.
How do these abilities change with age? How may ability differences be
used to improve the selection on FAA screening exams? How are these component
abilities degraded by toxic substances, and how well do they predict individual
differences in flying and in pilot judgment?
Crew coordination and communications
How is communications between flight deck members during system failures
affected by the level of flight deck automation.
Flight Training Research
The Institute of Aviation at the University of Illinois offers a particularly
suitable environment for flight training research. It has a pilot training
program for undergraduates of the University. Approximately 100 students
per year undertake all of the flight training and ground school preparation
for the private pilot's license, while approximately 150 other students
receive advanced training leading to commercial certification with instrument
rating. An increasing number of advanced students are remaining in the
training program to obtain multi-engine and certified flight instructor
ratings. All flight courses make heavy use of simulators and, as is all
important for good research, they offer tight and regular schedules of
classes in which ground school and flight training are closely coordinated.
The Aviation Research Laboratory is physically adjacent to the Institute's
flight training program, and is formally associated with it by virtue
of being a part of the Institute of Aviation. The Aviation Research Laboratory
has emphasized basic research related to flight training and simulation
for approximately 40 years. It has been typical for our laboratory to
cooperate with the Pilot Training Department on major flight training
projects which are designed, analyzed and reported by our research staff
and conducted with the assistance of flight instructors and flight students
from the training program. This cooperative relationship has the advantage
that research is conducted in an established training program so that
results are clearly relevant to real training concerns. In addition, because
students pay for the training, flight and training costs to the research
program are limited to additional check rides and additional simulator
training required as a part of the experiment.
Flight simulator technology
At issue here are questions relating to the appropriate level of flight
simulator fidelity that will support maximum transfer of training to critical
aviation skills. Particular interest has focused on visual landings.
Modeling expert and novice flight performance
Our interest here have focused on understanding the differences between
skilled and novice pilots in their control strategies, visual scanning
behavior and decision performance. The ultimate goal in this endeavor
is to determine if characteristics of expertise can be modeled and used
to more efficiently train novice pilots.
Microcomputer-based instruction
Our efforts in this area have been to develop microcomputer technology
for instructing many of the procedural aspects of flight, related to areas
such as ATC communications, preflight inspection, decision making, aircraft
systems and weather. Recent efforts have incorporated multimedia (audio,
visual disk) technology in developing instructional packages.
Research Publications
|