Effects Of Control System Augmentation Level On Pilot Workload And Effectiveness

Abstract

A piloted simulation experiment was conducted in the NASA Ames Vertical Motion Simulator to quantify differences in pilot workload and mission effectiveness between different levels of flight control augmentation (ranging from enduring fleet representative to advanced fly-by-wire) during two scout-representative mission vignettes. The study used a combination of experimental test pilots and operational pilots, and data collection included classic (rating scales) and emerging (physiological monitoring) techniques. Four aircraft configurations were included in the study, consisting of two configurations with full-authority fly-by-wire flight control systems representative of current state-of-the-art designs, and two configurations with partialauthority flight control systems representative of those found on enduring fleet aircraft. Overall, the fullauthority fly-by-wire configurations showed improvement over partial-authority legacy flight control system configurations in all metrics examined, including improved ability to fly lower and maintain airspeed, reduction in workload, and increase in mission effectiveness.