Effect of the change of flight, navigation and motor data visualization on psychophysiological state of pilots

Abstract

Psychological discomfort and stress may negatively affect various work activities especially in professions that are directly responsible for the lives and health of human beings. We can find these kinds of professions mainly in civil aviation, specifically the profession of a pilot. Analysis showed, that the legislative requirements for the qualifications of a pilot, require only the competence for a particular aircraft but they don't take in account the ergonomics of the cabin and the visualization of the basic flight data (analog, glass-cockpit). That's the reason why this paper assesses the influence of flight, navigation and engine data visualization on psychophysiological state of the pilot. In this paper we used the measuring of the heart rate as the main indicator of stress. Spectral analysis was used for the assessment of stress levels with main focus on the activity of the autonomic nervous system. The evaluation was based on twenty subjects in flight training, which were divided into two groups. Each group had different methods of training based on flight data visualization. The results show that the group with the more extensive glass-cockpit training exhibit lower values of psychophysiological stress. These findings may contribute to the increase of aviation safety and the description of human-machine interface in aviation.

Cardiovascular correlates of emotional state, cognitive workload and time-on-task effect during a realistic flight simulation

“…For instance, Luque-Casado et al (2016) demonstrated a decrement in HRV values with time-on-task, which would be linked to vigilance decrement or mental fatigue under high cognitive demand. This concern has also been raised in other studies dealing with either training (e.g., Socha et al, 2015 suggest that pilots with more extensive training sessions exhibit lower values on the short-term power spectrum of ECG) or emotional habituation (Feda and Roemmich, 2016;Sevenster et al, 2015).…”

Methodology of Pilot Performance Measurements

“…also from the point of precision of piloting techniques. It means that by measuring pilot's load we are able to quantify pilot performance (for particular results, see [8,9]). For this purpose, the research project made use of measurement equipment of the Faculty of Biomedicine Engineering, CTU in Prague [10,11].…”

Wearable Modular Telemetry System for the Integrated Rescue System Operational Use

“…It is thus vital to opt for compact wearable telemetry systems. An example of such application would be monitoring of pilots [10][11][12], in situations when it is impossible to measure physiological signals using standard medical devices due to their dimensions (e.g., ECG) in a plane cockpit. The importance of wearable telemetry systems capable of measuring and evaluating physiological condition and environmental parameters of the close surroundings of the user may be clearly seen with members of IRS (Integrates Rescue System).…”