Pilot's Situational Awareness and Methods of its Assessment

摘要

Objectives: The objective of this study is to search for the method of redistributing the functions between the pilot and the automatic control system. Methods: The study presents theoretical analysis of the principal approaches to the assessment of situational awareness and of the existing methods of its measuring described in both foreign and domestic literature. The review makes it possible to formulate the complex vision of this issue as it is represented in current investigations. Findings: Based on the results of the analysis it has been established that notwithstanding the significance of situational awareness within the framework of the flight safety theory, there is no generally adopted opinion on whether it is the process or the result of the pilot’s activity. The contradictions in the approaches to situational awareness assessment also lead to the fact that there is no generally accepted method for its measurement. Nevertheless, this study justifies the advisability of the calculation of the degree of the pilot’s situational awareness as the quantitative criterion for redistributing the control functions between the pilot and the automation system that takes into account both the complexity of aircraft control systems and the intensity of the pilot’s activity. Applications/Improvements: The study solves the problem of the redistribution of the functions between pilot and intelligent automatic control system based on the quantitative evaluation of the pilot’s IQ and situational awareness.