Pilot modelling for boundary hazard perception and reaction study

Hazard perception is the recognition of conditions that may pose threats to the safety of flight. Recognizing hazards early is important since it gives you time to react or plan appropriate defensive action well before any actual danger materializes. This paper presents the development and subsequent analysis of a pilot model in order to understand, explain, and predict the pilot boundary-hazard perception and associated reactions. Hess's multi-loop pursuit pilot model has been used to develop the part of the pilot model that performs the primary tracking task. The influence of the hazard perception and its reaction on the primary task can be modelled as a positive-feedback lead-lag term with two dependent parameters - a lead visual equalization term and a control gain to characterize the severity of the hazard situation. The piloted-simulation results on the 3D0F Bo 105 longitudinal model have a good agreement with those of theoretically predicated ones using the proposed pilot model in terms of the pilot cut-off frequency and the tracking performance. The research indicates that a certain high level of the hazard can increase the tracking performance if the pilot chooses appropriate visual-lead and control efforts. Moreover, the results also show that the similar tracking performance can be achieved subject to different levels of hazards at the cost of slightly increased control efforts

Coppice management of forests impacts spatial genetic structure but not genetic diversity in European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.)

Coppice management of forests was historically common in Europe. Actively managed coppice persists through vegetative regeneration prolonging the lifespan of trees and reducing flowering, seed production, and establishment. As coppicing alters the primary regeneration pathway within a stand, it is expected to alter the level and structuring of genetic diversity within populations. The study species, European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), has historically experienced widespread coppicing throughout the range of the species. Genetic material was obtained from paired coppiced and high forest stands, in each of three study sites across Europe located in Germany, France, and Italy. Trees were genotyped at 11 microsatellite loci. Estimates of genetic diversity were found to be equally high as those found in natural forests. Significant spatial genetic structure of coppice stands extended 10-20m further than their paired high forest indicating that local-scale patterns of geneflow have been significantly altered by generations of forest management in the coppice stands. Understanding the implications of such changes for the structure and level of diversity within traditionally managed populations can assist with management planning for conservation and resource use into the future

Development of pilot training requirements for Personal Aerial Vehicles

This paper describes research activities conducted at the University of Liverpool as part of the myCopter project into the development of training requirements for pilots of Personal Aerial Vehicles (PAVs). The work has included a Training Needs Analysis (TNA) to determine the skills required of a PAV pilot and the evaluation of a training programme that covers the development of the skills identified by the TNA. The effectiveness of the training programme has been assessed using the first three Levels of Kirkpatrick's method. The evaluation showed that the developed training programme was effective, in terms of engaging the trainees with the subject, and in terms of developing the skills required to fly a series of PAV-mission related tasks in a flight simulator

Towards the Development of a Flight Training Programme for Future Personal Aerial Vehicle Users

Interest in personal aerial vehicles (PAVs) is resurgent with several flying prototypes made possible through advances in the relevant technologies. Whilst the perceived wisdom is that these vehicles will be highly automated or autonomous, the current regulatory framework assumes that a human will always be able to intervene in the operation of the flight. This raises the possibility of manually operated PAVs and the requirement for an occupant flying training programme. This paper describes the development of training requirements for PAV pilots. The work includes a training needs analysis (TNA) for a typical PAV flight. It then describes the development of a training programme to develop the skills identified by the TNA. Five participants with no real flying experience, but varying levels of driving experience, undertook the training programme. Four completed the programme through to a successful simulation flight test of a commuter flight scenario. These participants evaluated the effectiveness of the training programme using the first three Levels of Kirkpatrick’s method. The evaluation showed that the developed training programme was effective, in terms of both trainee engagement and development of the handling skills necessary to fly PAV mission-related tasks in a flight simulator. The time required for the four successful participants to develop their core flying skills was less than 5 h. This duration indicates that future simulation PAV training would be commensurate with the training duration for current personal transportation modes

Development of a Generic Time-to-Contact Pilot Guidance Model

The time-to-contact ττ theory posits that purposeful actions can be conducted by coupling the actor’s motion onto the so-called ττ guides generated internally by their central nervous system. Although significant advances have been made in the application of ττ for flight control purposes, little research has been conducted to investigate how pilots are able to adapt their ττ-guidance strategy to different aircraft dynamics, or how a ττ-guide-based pilot–aircraft model might be used to represent control behavior. This paper reports on the development of such a model to characterize the adaptation of pilot guidance to variations in aircraft dynamics using data obtained from a clinical pilot-in-the-loop flight simulation experiment. The results indicate that pilots tend to maintain a constant coupling between the dynamic system’s motion and the ττ guide across a range of different configuration parameters. Simultaneously, the pilot modulates the guidance maneuver period to adapt to these different aircraft dynamics that result in changes in workload. Modeling the complete pilot stabilization and guidance function as a regulator plus inverter yields good comparative results between the pilot–aircraft model and simulator trajectory data, and it supports the hypothesis that the following ττ-based guidance strategies suppress an aircraft’s natural dynamics

Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) operators’ accuracy and confidence of decisions: Professional pilots or video game players?

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) operations have outpaced current training regimes resulting in a shortage of qualified UAS pilots. Three potential UAS operator groups were explored for suitability (i.e. video game players [VGP]; private pilots; professional pilots) and examined to assess levels of accuracy, confidence and confidence-accuracy judgements (W-S C-A) during a simulated civilian cargo flight. Sixty participants made 21 decision tasks, which varied across three levels of danger/risk. Scales of Tolerance of Ambiguity, Decision Style and NEO-PIR were also completed. Professional pilots and VGPs exhibited the highest level of decision confidence, with VGPs maintaining a constant and positive W-S C-A relationship across decision danger/risk. As decision danger/risk increased, confidence, accuracy and W-S C-A decreased. Decision danger also had a role to play in the confidence expressed when choosing to intervene or rely on automation. Neuroticism was negatively related, and conscientiousness positively related, to confidence. Intolerance of ambiguity was negatively related to W-S C-A. All groups showed higher levels of decision confidence in decisions controlled by the UAS in comparison to decisions where the operator manually intervened. VGPs display less overconfidence in decision judgements. Findings support the idea that VGPs could be considered a resource in UAS operation