Development and Application of a Hybrid Control Theory Model to Quantify Human-Machine Interaction Problems on the Flight Deck

Previous work has been conducted by McRuer [McRuer, 1973] to model the gain and delay of the pilot-aircraft system using classic control theory methods. However, a continuous extraction of gain and delay further enhances the ability to gather valuable, quantitative data to make inferences about human-machine interaction problems that occur on the flight deck. A parameter tracking system, based on McRuer’s crossover model, has been developed to simultaneously and continuously track the gains and delays at the pilot-machine interface with which pilots track particular axes. The values extracted for gain and delay may be indicative of particular human factors issues that are prevalent in the cockpit, such as inattention, complacency, low situational awareness, and high workload. This model has been developed for use in an artificial tracking task, where it has been observed that if gain and delay are allowed to change freely, the model is overfit and not realistic, as it is believed that gain and delay change rarely, though not necessarily slowly. To combat this, one gain/one delay is applied to the system to find time periods where the fit is poor, and these frames of time are then re-evaluated to find a gain/delay value that fits, and this method is applied across all poorly fit time periods to create a well-fit model. This method of modeling is then applied to a realistic flight simulation task for pilots and is intended to evaluate the levels of gain and delay for specific human-machine tasks incurred on the flight deck, and which axis are affected the most in flight.