<title>Flight test evaluation of tactical synthetic vision display concepts in a terrain-challenged operating environment</title>

Abstract

NASA's Aviation Safety Program, Synthetic Vision Systems Project is developing display concepts to improve pilot terrain/situational awareness by providing a perspective synthetic view of the outside world through an on-board database driven by precise aircraft positioning information updating via Global Positioning System-based data. This work is aimed at eliminating visibility-induced errors and low visibility conditions as a causal factor to civil aircraft accidents, as well as replicating the operational benefits of clear day flight operations regardless of the actual outside visibility condition. A flight test evaluation of tactical Synthetic Vision display concepts was recently conducted in the terrain-challenged operating environment of the Eagle County Regional Airport (Colorado). Several display concepts for head-up displays and head-down displays ranging from ARINC Standard Size A through Size X were tested. Seven pilots evaluated these displays for acceptability, usability, and situationallterrain awareness while flying existing commercial airline operating procedures for Eagle County Regional Airport. All tactical Synthetic Vision display concepts provided measurable increases in the pilot's subjective terrain awareness over the baseline aircraft displays. The head-down display presentations yielded better terrain awareness over the head-up display synthetic vision display concepts that were tested. Limitations in the head-up display concepts were uncovered that suggest further research.

Using Videos Derived from Simulations to Support the Analysis of Spatial Awareness in Synthetic Vision Displays

“…The Clutter measure asked participants to assess the amount of clutter on the SVS displays. The Awareness measure was similar to the terrain awareness question used in [10] and [11]. The Demand and Awareness questions are directly comparable to the demand and awareness dimensions of a 3-D SART score.…”

“…SVS displays have also been assessed with in-use evaluations [5] [10] [11]. Such evaluations usually take the form of flight tests.…”

Integrated Enhanced and Synthetic Vision System for Transport Aircraft

“…Numerous analytical, simulator and flight test studies comparing IESVS to conventional displays have documented the potential of IESVS displays for providing improved aviation safety, enhanced pilot vehicle performance, and increased operational capacity [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] .…”

<title>Flight test comparison between enhanced vision (FLIR) and synthetic vision systems</title>

“…2,4,5,12 Pilot comments indicated that the SVS-HUD/-HDD display concept provided the pilots' with an intuitive mental model of the aircraft situation with respect to terrain, other traffic, and the intended flight path. Intuitive display of this information has been a primary goal for NASA SVS display development.…”

“…SVS HUD concept evaluations included two variations in the method of terrain texturing (photo-realistic and generic) that were also evaluated in the head-down displays. 5,6 In order to create a 3-dimensional perspective terrain appearance, graphical lighting is used to create shading when the terrain database is generated. This shading of the terrain was not optimized for rendering on a monochrome HUD.…”