Topologies of aircraft cockpits and remote pilot stations

Lenhart, Peter Marcus

Publication type:	Conference other
Type of review:	Editorial review
Title:	Topologies of aircraft cockpits and remote pilot stations
Authors:	Lenhart, Peter Marcus
Conference details:	Technospaces : Persistence - Practices - Performance - Power, Darmstadt, 18.-20. März 2015
Issue Date:	Mar-2015
Language:	English
Subjects:	Aviation; Drone; Remote Pilot Station; Human Factors Engineering
Subject (DDC):	620: Engineering
Abstract:	Human factors engineering in aviation traditionally has focused on aircraft cockpits and the workspace of air traffic controllers. The planned integration of Remotely-Piloted Aircraft (RPA) into the air traffic system will add the Remote Pilot Station (RPS) as an additional type of workplace. In civil aviation, authorities only have started to define the requirements for qualification, training and licensing of drone pilots. However, it can be expected that the tasks of a civil Remote Pilot will differ from those of a classic pilot. Additionally, an aircraft cockpit is limited in its physical size, as it has to fit into the front of the aircrafts fuselage. For a Remote Pilot Station no such constraints exist per se. In consequence, a Human Centred Design of a RPS has to address the needs of the human operator. The engineering team has to be careful, not to fall into the “copy and paste trap”. It has to resist the temptation to simply copy a proven aircraft cockpit layout. Nonetheless, flight operations of manned and unmanned aircraft share a lot of commonalities. First, both will operate in the same airspace system under the same air traffic control. Second, in both environments, the crew is confronted with a high level of automation. Third, preventing a loss of situation awareness will be crucial for flight safety, no matter if the pilot is on board or controlling the aerial vehicle from a remote location. Present research at the ZHAW Centre for Aviation does concentrate on a Remote Pilot Station layout, where all information is displayed on a single large screen. The generic setup in our human factors laboratory features a curved 55 inch screen with 4K2K resolution. In a first study, we have identified relevant display content. This does include Synthetic Vision, Enhanced Vision, a Navigation Display with Moving Map functionality and the depiction of on-board systems data. Different concepts how to arrange this information have been developed. At the moment, we prepare experiments to investigate the usability of these concepts. A coupled head- and eye- tracking system does allow us to analyze visual scan patterns of the test persons. Our flight simulator, which features a conventional side-by-side cockpit can be used to compare the topology of such a Remote Pilot Station with the topology of an aircraft cockpit.
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/9921
Fulltext version:	Published version
License (according to publishing contract):	Licence according to publishing contract
Departement:	School of Engineering
Appears in collections:	Publikationen School of Engineering

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Lenhart, P. M. (2015, March). Topologies of aircraft cockpits and remote pilot stations. Technospaces : Persistence - Practices - Performance - Power, Darmstadt, 18.-20. März 2015.

Lenhart, P.M. (2015) ‘Topologies of aircraft cockpits and remote pilot stations’, in Technospaces : Persistence - Practices - Performance - Power, Darmstadt, 18.-20. März 2015.

P. M. Lenhart, “Topologies of aircraft cockpits and remote pilot stations,” in Technospaces : Persistence - Practices - Performance - Power, Darmstadt, 18.-20. März 2015, Mar. 2015.

LENHART, Peter Marcus, 2015. Topologies of aircraft cockpits and remote pilot stations. In: Technospaces : Persistence - Practices - Performance - Power, Darmstadt, 18.-20. März 2015. Conference presentation. März 2015

Lenhart, Peter Marcus. 2015. “Topologies of Aircraft Cockpits and Remote Pilot Stations.” Conference presentation. In Technospaces : Persistence - Practices - Performance - Power, Darmstadt, 18.-20. März 2015.

Lenhart, Peter Marcus. “Topologies of Aircraft Cockpits and Remote Pilot Stations.” Technospaces : Persistence - Practices - Performance - Power, Darmstadt, 18.-20. März 2015, 2015.