Human Heart-Related Indexes Behavior Study for Aircraft Pilots Allowable Workload Level Assessment

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate workload by detecting Heart Rate Variability (HRV) indexes in a sample of 34 pilots while performing simulated flight exercises. A one-way ANOVA with repeated measures was performed to assess the changes of the physiological measures in five standard maneuvers associated with different workload levels. The results show that all the indexes, but the Low Frequency to High Frequency ratio index (LF/HF), have a well-defined trend between the baseline and the en-route phase and with the three phases takeoff, steady turn, and landing. This study provides evidence of a differentiation among low, medium, and high workload levels using the time, frequencies, and non-linear HRV domains of analysis. These findings support the relevance of HRV indexes for workload evaluation, suggesting the development of non-invasive instruments capable of assessing workload in real-time. Further studies may be conducted to investigate whether the same findings could also be applied to more challenging maneuvers in real working conditions.

Stress and Workload Assessment in Aviation—A Narrative Review

“…35 ST articles were found [ 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 ]. In this context, the simulation of a flight task enables the control of experimental stimuli, such as the addition of engine failures (e.g., [ 43 ]), turbulence (e.g., [ 35 ]) or visibility setting (e.g., [ 30 ]).…”

“…Objective assessment was employed in 30 ST articles [29][30][31][32][33][34]36,[38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][47][48][49][50][51][52][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62] and in 9 RF articles [68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76]. As a result of the analysis of these studies, the performed objective measures, the calculated parameters, and the employed instrumentation are summarized in Table 1.…”

A brief review of pilots’ workload assessment using flight simulators: subjective and objective metrics

“…In essence, pilots must be conscious on which kind of decisions they have to take while flying, both in high and normal WL condition. Additionally, the study conducted in [12] employed the CESSNA Citation C560 XLS FFS. The main findings of the study demonstrated that WL levels can be effectively differentiated by analyzing various domains of HRV, including time, frequency, and non-linear measures.…”