Human Factors in Cockpit Design - Term Paper Example

Human Factors in Cockpit Design The purpose of any designers task while addressing Human Factor issue is to see the aspects of safety, ease of operation, and which is easy to learn. Good design promotes efficiency and consistency in task performance. That is the underlying principle on which cockpit designing is done. Cockpit is a compartment from where pilot controls the aircraft whether it is in air or on ground. It contains flight instruments and the controls to facilitate pilot navigation. While designing cockpit or flight deck area, representative users and human factors experts get involved and analyze operational and conceptual part of the requirements. They get involved in behavioral/cognitive task-analysis, time analysis for assessment of various task demands, computer modeling for reach analysis and assessing the complexities of the task involved. It stems from the color selection to environmental considerations for the error free operations by pilot. It is essential that critical information is presented in the pilots field of view so that his potential energies are focused on the critical task. Information presented should be easy to interpret and presented in the way to avoid cluttering. The Head-Down-Display (HDD) and the Head-Up-Display (HUD) are the systems, which are capable of satisfying these needs. Advanced technological research tools like simulators are capable of giving a great insight in studying man-machine interaction to make travel safe and less burdensome for pilots. The journey is endless and it will continue to pose new challenges depending upon the complexities that will come on the way. Cockpit designing will also be impacted from the other technologies too and may culminate into totally a different shape and style not imagined by anybody so far. Introduction: The purpose of any designers task while addressing Human Factor issue is to see the aspects of safety, ease of operation, and which is easy to learn. Good design promotes efficiency and consistency in task performance. That is the underlying principle on which cockpit designing is done. Cockpit is a compartment from where pilot controls the aircraft whether it is in air or on ground. The term is used to denote a place where pilot along with copilots are stationed with myriad of controls to navigate the aircraft. The cockpit contains various flight instruments and the controls to facilitate pilot navigation. The term is also sometimes used for the driver’s place in racing cars. Cockpit has a window which can be opened while the airplane is on the ground. Glass windows do have an anti-reflective coating to provide clear vision of the surroundings. It does have internal heating provision to melt ice during the winter or while flying through low temperature zones. Human Factor Evaluation in Cockpit Design: Human factor consideration benefits in designing of cockpit, which can be listed as under. Ascertains that pilot is able to navigate the flight without any extraordinary efforts whether mental or physical that is to say that he/she delivers the result within normal range of human abilities. The design is such that no rigorous training is required to use it. And finally the design is suitable for any human operator. (Human Factors Engineering and Flight Deck Design) How the Early Activities in Human Factors are Formulated: While designing cockpit or flight deck area, representative users and human factors experts get involved and analyze operational and conceptual part of the requirements. They get involved in behavioral/cognitive task-analysis, time analysis for assessment of various task demands, computer modeling for reach analysis and assessing the complexities of the task involved. Ultimate purpose of this exercise is to address key Human Factor issues in relation to the frequently performed tasks and complexities involved in performing those tasks so that it eliminates any error on part of pilot, which could have serious consequences if not performed correctly. (Human Factors Engineering and Flight Deck Design) Lighting Controls: The lighting characteristics are kept such that pilot can see, find and have a look at each display in all conditions of full darkness to full sunshine. It should be such that any change in ambient lighting due to day or night operations should not affect pilots operational ability in locating or reading cockpit controls. Further, colors are used in accordance with the definition given by FAR and it should be easily distinguishable. RED: Color is used for immediate pilot attention such as error, danger, failure etc. YELLOW/AMBER: For any alert kind situation asking for recheck, caution YELLOW/AMBER color is used. GREEN- When condition is all suitable to go ahead, indicative color GREEN is used. WHITE- When conditions are such that it has no safety implications and it has to indicate just alternative process then WHITE color is used. Color is used as secondary indications to shape, form or a symbol. Coding by color is avoided as much as possible. Information should stand alone with monochromatic display system. (THE GAMA-CLASS INTEGRATED…) Environmental Considerations Temperature Cockpit designing aspect takes into consideration the effects of temperatures. External temperature may vary substantially but ambient temperature in cockpit is kept such that pilot is able to perform the task without any exhaustion or fatigue. Temperature control devices remain in place so that any undue heating or cold is avoided, which is necessary for the proper functioning of the instruments. Ventilation Cockpit is also equipped with adequate ventilation system. A good ventilation system does not allow accumulation of any harmful fumes or carbon dioxide. This is necessary to provide pure supply of oxygen/air. This removes the possibility of any fatigue or any mental exhaustion. Noise Another important aspect is that noise level should not exceed 80 decibel. Sound levels and audio signals are adjustable to required level. Sound levels are such that it does not create any fatigue or exhaustion. It should be noted that auditory signals like warning signals etc are not masked, which are essential to be heard. Basic Design Factors: Cockpit designing decides about certain key parameters, which are the basis for the designing of the cockpit. They are mentioned hereunder. Primary Display: This displays most primary parameters, which are of critical concern and the pilot must know about it such as airspeed, altitude, navigation and propulsion data. Secondary Display: These are the data needed for aircraft control and not required immediately for the safety of flight. Cockpit Controls In cockpit, controls are provided as a side stick, on the left side of the pilot or as a center stick. Human factors play an important role in the design of cockpit. The layout and display controls are designed to increase pilot awareness. Earlier cockpits had physical dimensional limitations to accommodate male or female pilots but now in modern aircraft that deficiency is largely eliminated. Nowadays, all aircrafts are equipped with digital kind of display against the analog type found 30 years back. In any commercial and military aircraft, usually found are the landing gear switches, fire shut off switches, specialty handles and other switches. Landing gear switches are provided with lever lock, which is electrically released. Also provision is for mechanical override when in gear-down position and mechanical lever lock for gear-up position. Pilot and co-pilot have a separate landing gear switch. The master unit consists of operating switches and solenoids. (Cockpit controls) Cockpit design is done in such a fashion that there is a consistency between control motion and its resulting response. Cockpit controls take into account consistency and naturalness to avoid any faulty pilot response. Normally, all aircraft have a same philosophy for control direction movement. All controls regulate the system as per the expected response of the pilot. They are based on the following criteria. The shape of the control is unique and identifiable with the function. Control function is known by its physical location Each control indicates direction of movement, function to be controlled. Controls are marked with necessary symbol, word, number, or any abbreviation doted on the control or adjacent to it. They are of unique shape and size as per the industry regulations or practices. (THE GAMA-CLASS INTEGRATED…) Location of the Control The locations of controls are critical during the critical phases of flight. Some are required to be in the primary field of view and some are not depending upon when functions are required to be used whether in higher workload phases of flight or otherwise. Glass Cockpit The development and integration in glass cockpit design was out of necessity and ease of operation. During mid 1970s, there were more than 100 cockpit instruments and control and they all were crowded with symbols, and indicators. It was required to have displays that could provide the flight data into a simple easily decipherable information indicating aircrafts status, and progress with respect to speed and time factor. That is what prompted NASA engineers at their Langley Research Center to develop electronic flight display concepts which finally resulted into the full glass-cockpit system. The research team concentrated on what pilot needs most in terms of information and the way it is presented to them. Right balance was struck as to how it should be managed between computerized system and pilots. The end result was a glass cockpit coupled with auto piloting increasing safety. In this way, workload is reduced to a great extent on pilot. (The Glass Cockpit 2010) Fighter Cockpit All crucial information must be within field of vision of pilot. The way it is presented should be easy for interpretation. Arrangement of the information should be uncluttered. All the information can be divided into two heads - critical and status information. Critical information are those which are vital at a given instant, eg, altitude, airspeed, target parameters, g-loading, gunnery information etc. Status information are those which are viewed at when needed, eg, engine parameters, fuel, ammunition, ECM, tactical/radar in formation, etc. It is essential that critical information is presented in the pilots field of view so that his potential energies are focused on the task on hand. Information presented should be easy to interpret and in the way to avoid cluttering. The Head-Down-Display (HDD) and the Head-Up-Display (HUD) are the systems, which are capable of satisfying these needs. Both are first designed as a requirement to weapon systems, before employed for more general application. HDDs display television type images - as the FLIR infrared cameras used on the fighter planes like B-52, A-7, A-10 (two-seater) etc. Another use of HDD has been the attitude information display. Other information like altitude, airspeed is also made available to pilot through this. The HUD is considered to be one of the most versatile designs for having the information to the pilot. It is still under development stage. The head-up-display is a derivative of the collimating gunsight. HUD employs CRT in place of reticle enabling the projection of symbology. (The Modern Fighter Cockpit) Cockpit Mock-up from Airbus: Airbus provides high tech state-of-the-art cockpit on its aircraft adopting the latest deck technology employing many new functions. It aims at improving safety and efficiency of the pilot and simultaneously reduces pilot workload. The airbus A350 has embraced all A380 innovations with improved ergonomics. The airbus A350 has gone far enough in completion of full scale cockpit mock-up, which is said to incorporate highest level of maturity in an aircrafts development. Initial mock-up was for layout validation and was known as "class one" configuration. However, latest version provides for more detailed configuration and takes into account factors like safety, ease of use and component design. Jean Duprez, a project leader describes it a most representative so far stating, “This cockpit is perhaps the most representative ever produced by Airbus at this stage in development.” (New Cockpit... 2010) It has already been made available to US Airways for the pilots to have a feel of it. Besides offering advanced technologies, The A350 cockpit also offers Brake-to-Vacate, a patented technology helping pilots in selecting runway exit while landing and regulating aircrafts speed. This helps optimize occupancy time and thus reduces the fuel consumption. This surely helps increase life of tires and brakes and comfort of passengers. (A350 cockpit borrows A380 innovations 2006) This also includes Autopilot Traffic Collision Avoidance System offering extra protection in comparison to conventional TCAS systems. (A350 cockpit borrows A380 innovations 2006) Future of the Cockpit: Dynamic Systems Integration (DSI) of Virginia has partnered with Microsoft to develop a cockpit of the future. It is built on a Microsoft Platform, which they claim to be as safe and affordable as driving a car. Here all flight information is entered into a portable device. The portable device is linked to the Connected Cockpit of the Future. Cockpit having received all the information realigns itself and reorganize the displays as per the pilots user preferences and the information is available in accepted formats. The system is capable of alerting and informing all potential problems visually and by voice to the pilot. Once the interface is through noting user preferences, it goes through various checklists monitoring aircraft status. The system notifies pilot of any current or future problems then proceeds to connect SATS Airport Management Module also known as AMM. (NASA Helps Design the "Cockpit of the Future”) Office of the Chief Technologist, NASA spinoff, further describes the system design in its release as under. “The AMM is a centralized, automated airport arbiter and sequencer. It receives requests from aircraft via data link and grants or denies access. The AMM also provides estimated times of arrival when access is granted and an “expect further clearance” time when access is denied. Once the AMM has granted clearance, the cockpit display anticipates the information the pilot will need and makes it available at the most opportune time according to what stage of the flight the pilot is in and according to the predefined user preferences.” (NASA Helps Design the "Cockpit of the Future”) New Generation Cockpit from CMC CMC is in the process of developing a new-generation cockpit for business jets. So far its focus was only in military aircraft. Gerald Charland of CMC informed that cockpit for the business jet will be different than what is available on the market currently. It will be an open architecture type and will offer ‘head-up’ technology and lead to a paperless cockpit. He further claimed that CMCs concept will be totally new and several original equipment manufacturers will participate in this development. (Canadas CMC to develop new integrated cockpit) Conclusion Ever since Wright brothers invention in , aircrafts and the most important part of it cockpit has gone through enormous changes and the human factor has been one of the most intangible determinants in designing the cockpit and always offers never ending scope in continued improvement of the same. Advanced technological research tools like simulators are capable of giving a great insight in studying man-machine interaction to make travel safe and less burdensome for pilots. The journey is endless and it will continue to pose new challenges depending upon the complexities that will come on the way. Cockpit designing will also be impacted from the other technologies too and may culminate into totally a different shape and style not imagined by anybody so far. References: 1. Human Factors Engineering and Flight Deck Design Online from http://davi.ws/avionics/TheAvionicsHandbook_Cap_9.pdf [Accessed on 12/2/2010] 2. THE GAMA-CLASS INTEGRATED COCKPIT / FLIGHTDECK (2004) Online from http://www.saaa.com/pdfs/Members/COCKPIT%20DESIGN%20BY%20GAMA.pdf [Accessed on 12/2/2010] 3. Cockpit controls Online from http://www.esterline.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=0tECKkFErrQ%3D&tabid=1670 [Accessed on 12/2/2010] 4. The Modern Fighter Cockpit. Online from http://www.ausairpower.net/TE-Fighter-Cockpits.html [Accessed on 12/2/2010] 5. The Glass Cockpit (2010) Online from http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/Glasscockpit.html [Accessed on 12/2/2010] 6. NASA Helps Design the "Cockpit of the Future" Online from http://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/1240 [Accessed on 12/2/2010] 7. New cockpit mock-up underscores the A350 XWB’s advanced development (2010) Online from http://www.airbus.com/en/aircraftfamilies/news/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=4144&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=1555&cHash=1c013b6a05 [Accessed on 12/4/2010] 8. A350 cockpit borrows A380 innovations (2006) Online from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3126/is_683_60/ai_n29257225/?tag=content;col1 [Accessed on 12/4/2010] 9. Canadas CMC to develop new integrated cockpit Online from http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/01/27/321663/canadas-cmc-to-develop-new-integrated-cockpit.html 1240 [Accessed on 12/3/2010] Read More