Examining Low-Cost Simulation and Situational Awareness Assessment in Army Aviation Applications

摘要

The concept of using simulation for training is not new in the aviation experience. Flight simulators have been in existence since the early 1920s and have evolved from non-mechanical, tethered aircraft to high fidelity, multi-million dollar motion platforms. In the demanding and dynamic environment of aviation, errors can be catastrophic. It is not surprising that both the civilian and military communities have made simulation training a critical component of their aviation training programs. Despite the wide variety of simulation training efforts being pursued by military and civilian aviation alike, there is limited research on the subject of low-cost team training, particularly in the area of situation awareness. Most research has been directed toward individual task performance. Only in recent years has additional emphasis been placed on crew resource management (CRM). Even less literature exists on the concept of aircraft to aircraft team training an intercockpit training model as opposed to an infracockpit training model. Simulation being used by the U.S. Army that is team based focuses mostly on commander and battle staff training. There is a clear lack of research concerning the suitability of using low-cost simulation for training U.S. Army aviators in team collective tasks and situational awareness (SA). The purpose of this research is to develop an assessment tool and conceptual model, tailored to emulate Army aviation platforms, that can be used in an situational awareness training goals. Lessons learned and areas for future research are also discussed.