Human Performance Envelope Model Study Using Pilot’s Measured Parameters

Abstract

Taking into consideration that nowadays the aerospace industry focuses a lot on safety, more durable and stable systems are developed. While the system itself is safer, there is another element that can have a high impact on the overall safety of a flight, namely the human factor. Pilot physiological parameters were measured during a full flight in a fixed cockpit environment using application-specific equipment. The recorded or calculated parameters are used to compute a performance envelope model with the scope of determining the degradation of the pilot’s condition during different flight phases or events. Several standardized tests were realized/performed on subjects who were given flight instructions before the test, without knowing beforehand the scenario and events that will occur/take place. This study helps in identifying the limits of pilots in different flight scenarios and the impact on their presumed performance.

Definition and Literature Review on Human Performance Envelope Concept in Aerospace Activity

“…Even if, physiological measurements on pilots were done in the past decades (even before 1975) [7], the concept of Human Performance Envelope (HPE) brought a new idea: the relationship between multiple ergonomic factors and its influence on the human performance. For the first time, this concept was mentioned in the PhD thesis "Human performance in air traffic control", written by Tamsyn Edwards.…”

“…Moreover, they have configured the HPE concept as a spider graph (figure 1), in which the corners are represented by the value of each factor, so the human performance could be measured using the graphical illustration. According to the representation and depending on the value of the nine ergonomic factors, the pilot's performance could be optimal, critical or degraded [7,9]. Fig.…”