Project Details
Projekt
Pilot-Centered Design of a Longitudinal Acceleration Command System for Augmented Manual Flight Control (nx-Control)
Subject Area
Automation, Mechatronics, Control Systems, Intelligent Technical Systems, Robotics
Human Factors, Ergonomics, Human-Machine Systems
Human Factors, Ergonomics, Human-Machine Systems
Term
from 2012 to 2019
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 225630728
The growing air traffic increases the requirements on pilots with respect to flight control. It is expected that more complex trajectories are to be aviated with greater precision than today. This will not be a problem in case of automated flying. However, the increased requirements, in principle, must also remain achievable even in manual flight. This means higher cognitive and motoric workload of the pilots compared to today, due to more complex energy management. Thus far, the manual control of thrust and speed brakes, the elements that influence the airplane's total energy, is based on so called pitch-and-power estimations. In today's cockpits, there is no support for this task. This is in contrast to already available augmented flight control systems for controlling the aircraft's attitude. In the first project phase, the requirements resulting from the management of energies and the involved cognitive processes of pilots were investigated. On this basis a new flight controller for the longitudinal load factor was developed (nxControl) to assist the pilot by combining the energy increasing and decreasing elements in one command. Thereby, the controller significantly reduces the cognitive and motoric workload of pilots in manual flight. Parallel to this development, also a new control lever and several display enhancements were developed in a pilot-centered approach to visualize the functioning of the system and to make its operation as intuitive as possible. In a flight simulator study it could already be shown that the nxControl system is comprehensible and well accepted by the pilots. In addition, it could be proved that today's standard flight tasks can be managed with nxControl at a lower workload with similar precision, compared to conventional manual flight. Thus, the main goals of the first project phase have been achieved. The objective of the second project phase is to show that the nxControl concept can be integrated coherently into the existing cockpit philosophy of today's commercial aircraft for the entire flight from gate to gate. This will be done in three steps. First, the system will be expanded and completed according to the requirements of the transition from flight to ground mode. In ground mode the new controller can access wheel brakes and thrust reverser to reduce energy. Second, it will be investigated in a simulator study whether the system can still operate in case of energy-related failures (e.g. engine failure) and still provide effective support to the pilot. Based on the results, if necessary, the system will be further optimized. Third, it will finally be demonstrated that, given the new system, also complex future flight trajectories can still be aviated in manual mode with reasonable accuracy and moderate workload. For this purpose, the integrated system including the controller and new cockpit interfaces will be evaluated in a comprehensive flight simulator study with licensed airline pilots.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
