Developing Virtual Interfaces for Use in Future Fighter Aircraft Cockpits

摘要

The current research was conducted to evaluate the effect of employing multi-sensory displays for fighter aircraft cockpit on the performance of a simulated air combat task. Each of four experienced U.S. Air Force F-16 pilots flew twelve simulated missions which required them to locate and destroy four enemy bombers whose flight path was pre-programmed. Simultaneously, two other pilots were assigned to auxiliary cockpits in the laboratory and flew enemy fighter aircraft in an attempt to intercept and shoot down the primary pilot. Each pilot flew six trials using a cockpit comprised of conventional F-15 flight instruments and six trials using a modified, multi-sensory cockpit. The latter configuration included three-dimensional sound cueing information specifying the location of enemy aircraft, a head-slaved head-up display, a schematic representation of the terrain that provided pictorial information about self-motion an altitude, a spatial representation of the location of enemy and friendly aircraft in the vicinity, a pictorial representation of the status of aircraft weapons systems, and a multi-sensory Ground Collision Avoidance System. The results indicate tha pilot performance and situational awareness were enhanced with the multi-sensory cockpit as opposed to the conventional cockpit. This report also contains a summary of the effects of changes in tactics and new control and display technology on the development of multi-sensory crewstations.