Drone Acceptance and Noise Concerns - Some Findings

Drones are becoming ever more present in public perception. Ranging from parcel delivery to wildlife protection, from precision farming to law enforcement, and from industrial inspection to digital fireworks, many applications are said to have market changing potential. Against this background, nations and institutions around the world are trying to keep up with the dynamic development concerning rules and regulations. Since all of the parties involved anticipate a strong increase in both the number of drones and their range of uses, there is a rising interest in the acceptance of civil drones in the public. Widespread public acceptance can promote the dissemination of new technologies. Conversely, concerns among citizens about the use of drones in their daily environment could pose potential barriers to the further proliferation of civil drones, especially in urban areas. The psychoacoustic properties of drones have repeatedly been discussed as being one such limiting factor. This paper reports results of a representative national study on the social acceptance of civilian drones, taking a closer look at noise considerations. Therefore the results help improve understanding of the perception of civil unmanned aerial vehicles

Selection Requirements to Work in Future ATM Systems

Different findings concerning staff selection requirements for future Air Traffic Management (ATM) resulting from empirical studies and expert judgement are summarised. The biggest impacts are foreseen for ATCO’s, commercial pilots, ATM technical staff and a/c maintenance staff, mainly related to advanced ATM concept features. An empirical study involving ATCOs and pilots encompassing workshops and simulations studying elements of a free flight scenario revealed significant changes in ability requirements for ATCOs and pilots. They indicate higher ability requirements for pilots in future ATM systems and only small changes for air traffic controllers. Pilot and air traffic controller profiles are likely to assimilate with regard to cognitive abilities. ‘Operational Monitoring’ is expected to become a core requirement for future ATM systems. A definition and a respective requirements analysis scale are proposed

Supporting Urban Air Mobility with Citizen Participatory Noise Sensing: A Concept

Looking ahead, in about 20 years, there is likely to be urban air mobility in larger cities across the globe. If economic predictions come true, thousands of air taxi flights will take place daily in capital cities. Noise generated by urban flight mobility has been identified as a critical factor in this development. A concept is proposed to help raise the tolerance level for urban air noise among communities as well as of individual residents by means of transparency. This concept views residents as stakeholders in urban air mobility and widens the call for continuous noise measurements of vertical take-off and landing operations on individual site basis by residents voluntary on-site data collection enabled by smartphone-based participatory noise sensing (PNS). In the presentation of this concept, this discussion paper describes important aspects of social acceptance of urban air mobility

Investigating gaze-controlled input in a cognitive selection test

In the field of aviation, there is a growing interest in developing more natural forms of interaction between operators and systems to enhance safety and efficiency. These efforts also include eye gaze as an input channel for human-machine interaction. The present study investigates the application of gaze-controlled input in a cognitive selection test called Eye Movement Conflict Detection Test. The test enables eye movements to be studied as an indicator for psychological test performance and uses eye gaze as an input modality. Participants have to detect potential conflicts between aircraft and mark them using gaze input. In order to differentiate between eye movements related to the conflict detection task and fixations as commands (Midas touch problem), conflicts are first selected (pre-activated) and then marked (activated). Pre-activation is indicated by a color change from the border to the middle within the respective field. Unintended pre-activation can be interrupted by a saccade to another location. Different dwell times have been tested for pre-activation and activation in order to find an appropriate configuration for the participants. First results from pilot and air traffic controller applicants will be presented. The potential contribution of eye movements in the selection of aviation staff will be discussed

Ability Requirements for Next Generation Aviation Professionals

Comparing today's control rooms or cockpits to those of about 30 years ago clearly shows huge differences in hard- and software, making changes in psychological requirements more than reasonable. To identify changes in ability requirements for operators in future aviation is of some concern when learning about solutions envisaged with large scale programs like NextGen or SESAR. This presentation reports what more than 300 air traffic controllers and pilots described as perceived changes in ability requirements when comparing today's aircraft or system with the one they have been trained for initially. Results were showing different pictures for the professions compared; however operational monitoring, information ordering, selective attention, time sharing and vigilance were always among the requirements with the highest perceived changes since initial training. Results will help to increase the understanding of past changes in ability requirements as perceived by job incumbents

Regulationserfordernisse für den nachhaltigen Betrieb von unbemannten Luftfahrzeugen

Neben der allgemein vorherrschenden Forderung nach Klimaneutralität sind verschiedene Dimensionen der Nachhaltigkeit von Verkehrstransportsystemen definiert. Dazu gehört die soziale Nachhaltigkeit mit den Themen Verfügbarkeit und Verbreitung, Unfallrisiken, Auswirkungen auf die Gesundheit, Erschwinglichkeit des Transports und Beschäftigungsauswirkungen. Soziale Nachhaltigkeit von urbaner Luftmobilität wird in diesem Sinne als gegeben angesehen wenn sie eine breite gesellschaftliche Teilhabe ermöglicht, ein klarer Nutzen für das Gemeinwohl erzielt wird, der Betrieb für Nutzer dauerhaft erschwinglich ist und für Anwender und Anwohner gleichermaßen schädigungsfrei verläuft. Dieser Beitrag beschreibt Anforderungen an eine nachhaltige urbane Luftmobilität insbesondere hinsichtlich gesundheitlicher Auswirkungen auf die Bevölkerung

Drone acceptance and noise concerns - From NIMBY to NOMOH

Drones are becoming more and more present in public perception. As a strong increase in the number and uses of drones is anticipated by all parties involved there is a rising interest concerning the acceptance of civil drones in the public. Widespread public acceptance can promote the successful dissemination of new technologies. Likewise, concerns of citizens about the use of drones in their daily environment could be potential barriers to the further proliferation of civil drones, especially in urban areas. The psychoacoustic properties of drones have repeatedly been discussed as being one such limiting factor. This paper reports findings of a study about the acceptance of civil drones in Germany. 832 respondents participated in a phone interview of about 20 minutes duration. This paper will describe factors of drone acceptance with a special reference to noise concerns as stated by about half of the study participants. In addition, the acceptance of home overflight and its limitations will be discussed