Head-mounted displays for civil helicopter navigation and obstacle avoidance

Abstract

Civilian helicopter pilots flew simulated Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) scenarios using a head-mounted display (HMD) with guidance and/or obstruction imagery. Obstructions were detected and avoided earlier when shown in the HMD than those shown only out the window, and highway-in-the-sky (HITS) guidance reduced subsequent maneuvering in the terminal phase of arrival. The HMD depictions of power lines (passive representation) reduced wire strikes but did not eliminate them. An active warning presentation (red warning fence) overlaid on the power-line graphic at the point it transected the flight path completely eliminated flights into that obstruction. Pilots preferred the active warning representation, indicating that the passive one was ambiguous. Pilots' preference tended towards the simplified representations of power lines but towards the complex "realistic" representations of broadcast towers. A strong preference was also expressed for integrated cockpit systems (HMD, MFD, PFD) that depicted the same obstruction information and warnings on each display.

Texting while driving using Google Glass™: Promising but not distraction-free

“…The data supports the advantages of the HMD over the HDD as an information display for drivers, which is a novel finding in the driving domain. The benefits of HMD found in the aviation and medical domains also seem to apply to driving (Beringer and Drechsler, 2013;Liu et al, 2009;Tannen et al, 2004).…”

Obstacle-Avoidance Displays for Helicopter Operations: Spatial Versus Guidance Symbologies

“…In one case, these two concepts were combined and presented the pilot with a spatial presentation of the obstacles, as well as HITS symbology that guided the pilot to the landing zone [3]. The findings demonstrated the advantage of the combination in shortening the transit time to the landing zone (LZ) and, at the same time, in preventing the pilots from flying into the power line during their final approach to the LZ.…”

“…Although the first requires a low-level flight in unfamiliar areas, mainly on the takeoff and landing parts of the flight, the second one requires low-level flight throughout the entire flight within enemy territory [1]. Under such conditions, accidents involving obstacle collisions during flight or landing are more common in military and HEMS operations than in other flight operations [2,3]. A recent example was the fatal crash of a civil helicopter (Agusta A109E) into a crane above central London when the helicopter tried to land during bad visibility conditions [4].…”

“…This type of guidance is sometimes called a four-dimensional display because it considers both the present and the future positions of the helicopter. It may take the form of a "tunnel in the sky," a "highway in the sky" (HITS) [12,13], or a leader symbol that the pilot should follow [2,3,6,9]. The leader version of the guidance symbology is less obtrusive and blocks less of the outside view of the pilot.…”

“…2) The second category is degraded visibility environment (DVE): limited horizontal visibility (in some cases, it is defined as less than 3 n miles [3]). These conditions can occur in both the daytime and nighttime.…”