During pitch rotation of the aircraft, a pilot, seated in front of the aircraft center of gravity, is subjected to rotational pitch and vertical heave motion. The heave motion is a combination of the vertical motion of the aircraft center of gravity and the heave motion as a result of the pitch rotation. In a pitch tracking task, all of these cues could potentially have a positive effect on performance and control behavior, as they are all related to the aircraft pitch attitude. To improve the tuning of flight simulator motion filters, a better understanding of how these motion components are used by the pilot is required. First, the optimal use of the different motion components was evaluated using an optimal control analysis. Next, an aircraft pitch attitude control experiment was performed in the SIMONA Research Simulator, investigating the effects of pitch rotation, pitch heave, and center of gravity heave on pilot control behavior. Pilot performance significantly improved with pitch motion, with an increased crossover frequency for the disturbance open loop. The increase in performance was a result of an increased visual gain and a reduction in visual lead, allowed for by the addition of pitch motion. Pitch heave motion showed similar but smaller effects. The center of gravity heave motion, although taking up most of the simulator motion space, was found to have no significant effects on performance and control behavior

Real-life tracking tasks often show preview information to the human controller about the future track to follow. The effect of preview on manual control behavior is still relatively unknown. This paper proposes a generic operator model for preview tracking, empirically derived from experimental measurements. Conditions included pursuit tracking, i.e., without preview information, and tracking with 1 s of preview. Controlled element dynamics varied between gain, single integrator, and double integrator. The model is derived in the frequency domain, after application of a black-box system identification method based on Fourier coefficients. Parameter estimates are obtained to assess the validity of the model in both the time domain and frequency domain. Measured behavior in all evaluated conditions can be captured with the commonly used quasi-linear operator model for compensatory tracking, extended with two viewpoints of the previewed target. The derived model provides new insights into how human operators use preview information in tracking tasks.

This paper presents a new method for estimating the parameters of multi-channel pilot models that is based on maximum likelihood estimation. To cope with the inherent nonlinearity of this optimization problem, the gradient-based Gauss-Newton algorithm commonly used to optimize the likelihood function in terms of output error is complemented with a genetic algorithm. This significantly increases the probability of finding the global optimum of the optimization problem. The genetic maximum likelihood method is successfully applied to data from a recent human-inthe-loop experiment. Accurate estimates of the pilot model parameters and the remnant characteristics were obtained. Multiple simulations with increasing levels of pilot remnant were performed, using the set of parameters found from the experimental data, to investigate how the accuracy of the parameter estimate is affected by increasing remnant. It is shown that only for very high levels of pilot remnant the bias in the parameter estimates

Abstract-Manual control cybernetics aims to understand and describe how humans control vehicles and devices using mathematical models of human control dynamics. This 'cybernetic approach' enables objective and quantitative comparisons of human behavior, and allows a systematic optimization of human control interfaces and training associated with manual control. Current cybernetics theory is primarily based on technology and analysis methods formalized in the 1960s and has shown to be limited in its capability to capture the full breadth of human cognition and control. This paper reviews the current state-of-the-art in our knowledge of human manual control, points out the main fundamental limitations in cybernetics, and proposes a possible roadmap to advance the theory and its applications. Central in this roadmap will be a shift from the current linear time-invariant modeling approach that is only truly valid for human behavior under tightly controlled and stationary conditions, to methods that facilitate the analysis of adaptive, and possibly time-varying, human behavior in realistic control tasks. Examples of key current developments in the field of cybernetics -human use of preview, predictable discrete maneuvering, skill acquisition and training, time-varying human modeling, and neuromuscular system modeling -that contribute to this shift are presented in this paper. The new foundations for cybernetics that will emerge from these efforts will impact all domains that involve humans in manual and semi-automatic control.

This paper investigates how humans use a previewed target trajectory for control in tracking tasks with various controlled element dynamics. The human's hypothesized "near" and "far" control mechanisms are first analyzed offline in simulations with a quasi-linear model. Second, human control behavior is quantified by fitting the same model to measurements from a human-in-the-loop experiment, where subjects tracked identical target trajectories with a pursuit and a preview display, each with gain, single-, and double-integrator controlled element dynamics. Results show that target-tracking performance improves with preview, primarily due to the far-viewpoint response, which allows humans to cancel their own and the controlled element's lags, without additional control activity. The near-viewpoint response yields better target tracking at higher frequencies, but requires substantially more control activity. The control-theoretic approach adopted in this paper provides unique quantitative insights into human use of preview, which can help to explain human behavior observed in other preview control tasks, like driving.