Effect of Haptics on Pilot/operator Performance During Flight Simulation

Abstract

The significance of training in aviation industry has been recognized since the beginning of manned flight. When we talk about training for pilots it is obvious that it has to be a flight simulation experience because training in a real aircraft is not safe nor economical. Flight simulators provides us the flexibility to run different test case scenarios which might not be possible in real flight. With the flexibility comes the compromised immersion and handling qualities in flight simulators. Researchers suggest that by providing necessary sensory stimulants in a flight simulation it could be made more immersive and close to the real flying experience. Keeping this in mind this research is focused on studying the effects of haptic feedback on operator performance(i.e. in terms of handling qualities) in a UAV flight simulation. To provide the haptic feedback UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) aerodynamics were modeled to calculate flight parameters such as altitude, attitude, velocities, pitch rate and angles which were then used to calculate and render haptic forces similar to the forces felt in a manned aircraft to the pilot through a touch 3D haptic device. Two of the flight instruments i.e. attitude and altitude meter were displayed in a Graphical User Interface (GUI). For checking the effectiveness of the proposed system on pilot performance test case scenarios comprising of without haptic feedback, with haptic feedback and exaggerated haptic feedback were developed for altitude hold task. To validate our approach, tests were conducted on students having no previous flying experience. Result analysis showed that pilot felt confident in achieving mission objectives more effectively when flying using haptic feedback in comparison to without haptic feedback condition. From pilots feedback it was also found that the naive users recommend the force feedback condition and they felt situationally more aware about the aerodynamic loads acting on the UAV.