Analysis of the Impact of Task Difficulty on the Operatorʾs Workload Level

Abstract

The widely held thesis is that the profession of pilot is one of the most difficult jobs to do. The task of the article was to analyse whether and how the difficulty of the performed task affects the pilot’s workload during the flight. The research was carried out using a flight simulator. During the simulator tests, the cognitive load measurements represented by the change in pilot pulse and concentration were used. A finger pulse oximeter was used for the first purpose. The second device was Mindwave Mobile which allows to measure level of pilot’s concentration and relaxation. The NASA-TLX questionnaire is used as a subjective method of operator’s workload assessment. The examined person assesses the level of his/her load, using six dimensions: mental demand, physical demand, temporal demand, performance, effort, and frustration level. Five research hypotheses were put forward and verified by the Friedman test. It has been shown that the level of difficulty of individual stages of the study is appropriately differentiated by pulse, concentration, relaxation, and subjective assessment of the respondents’ workload. It has been proved that pulse measurement, concentration, and relaxation levels, as well as subjective assessment of load levels, can be successfully used to assess the psychophysical condition of the operator.

Psychophysical State Aspect during UAV Operations

“…With the knowledge that commercial UAV licensing is expected to significantly increase in the next few years, these results suggest more work is needed in the UAVO training field, and the methods used so far have to be developed. According to the literature, human error is the most difficult component to assess in the prevention of aviation accidents [9][10][11]. Assessments of the mental workload for UAV operations are essential in realising the causes of UAV accidents [12].…”

“…Connecting HRV parameters with, for example, gaze behaviour [11] may lead to a complex psychophysical state assessment method. It may lead to the better identification of difficult exercises, which could result in greater UAVO training effectiveness.…”

Case Study of the Psychophysical State of Student-Operators During UAVO Training, Based on Heart Rate Parameter

“…The human factor is a very important aspect when operating a UAV in commercial or recreational conditions. According to the analysis of the literature, it is known that humans are the cause of about 70% -80% of all aviation incidents around the world [2,16,12]. The occurrence of events related to the human factor may be significantly influenced by the level of task load in a given operator.…”

Pilots’ Gaze Behavior in Simulation Research

“…Workload is defined as the difference between the amount of information that must be processed by the cognitive system and the number of cognitive resources that are required to perform a task [13,17]. When the task is demanding enough and begins to exceed the amount of available cognitive resources the phenomenon of overload occurs and can be observed in the pilot's behavior, for example, lost situational awareness appears [25].…”