Recent system development efforts have been made concerning a Tactile Situation Awareness System (TSAS). TSAS is a garment containing vibrotactile stimulators that provide aircraft flight control feedback to the torso. TSAS is intended to improve human factors during flight by reducing workload, increasing situation awareness, and reducing the likelihood of brownout mishaps. During simulation and flight tests, pilots using TSAS have demonstrated the ability to non-visually hover helicopters, while consistently reporting reduced workload and increased situation awareness. The current effort enlarged the surface area of the garment to extend the capability beyond hovering to include complete forward flight control (pitch and roll) so that the technology could be transitioned to the helicopter pilot community and effect a reduction of brownout mishaps. The following describes the delivery of this new suite of capabilities, including the cueing garments, avionics interfaces, and software compatible with military helicopter platforms.
In an effort to identify physiological measures to be used for identifying aviator operator state, a study was completed evaluating electroencephalograph (EEG) data recorded during simulated flight. Eight Army aviators participated in the study. EEG data were recorded during a baseline and high workload flights. Correlational analyses examining the relationship between EEG data and flight performance data found a relationship between frontal alpha activity and altitude deviations. The findings suggest that EEG is a candidate measure for detecting operator state in rotary-wing aviators.
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