Performance, Situation Awareness, and Visual Scanning of Pilots Receiving Onboard Taxi Navigation Support During Simulated Airport Surface Operation

The so-called advanced surface movement guidance and control system (A-SMGCS) comprises a suite of new technologies and procedures for both the flight deck and ground air traffic control, enabling more efficient and safe airport surface movement. This study evaluates an A-SMGCS flight deck human-machine interface (HMI) which supports the navigation of the flight deck crew to and from the runway, and displays own-ship, cleared taxi routes and surrounding traffic over an electronic airport moving map. Taxi instructions obtained via controller pilot data link communication are also integrated in the display. The evaluation is done on the basis of subjective situation awareness rating, pilot taxi navigation performance and eye movement analysis. The study involved 49 commercial pilots who performed a series of high-fidelity landing-and-taxiing simulation trials under varied visibility and traffic scenarios. Findings suggest that the HMI significantly increased subjective situation awareness and reduced the number of taxi navigation errors and unforced stops particularly in low visibility. Although increased head-down times to the compelling HMI were found, detection of unexpected obstacles in the outside scene was not deteriorated compared to conventional surface navigation support by airport paper charts. Since onboard guidance systems such as the one evaluated in this paper appear to have human performance benefits, the introduction of this technology should proceed gradually, with adequate attention to design and training needs.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/47250898
• Authors:
  • Lorenz, Bernd
  • Biella, Marcus
  • Teegen, Uwe
  • Stelling, Dirk
  • Wenzel, Jurgen
  • Jakobi, Jorn
  • Ludwig, Thomas
  • Korn, Bernd
• Publication Date: 2006

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 135-154
• Serial:
  • Human Factors and Aerospace Safety
  • Volume: 6
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: Ashgate Publishing Limited
  • ISSN: 1468-9456
  • Serial URL: http://www.ashgate.com/subject_area/aviation/aviation_journals.htm

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air pilots; Aircraft pilotage; Airport surface traffic control; Awareness; Communication systems; Digital maps; Evaluation and assessment; Eye movements; Ground traffic; Navigation systems; Personnel performance; Simulation; System design; Taxiing; Technological innovations; User interfaces (Computer science)
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01079550
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 22 2007 10:15AM