A human-factors perspective on simulator fidelity assessement
Publish date: 2006-01-01
Report number: FOI-R--2047--SE
Pages: 26
Written in: English
Abstract
The present report describes a study performed together with the Lund University School of Aviation. The report has two specific purposes: (1) compare two different recording devices for psychophysiological data with respect for their usefulness in assessing pilot mental workload in simulated and real flight. (2) Study the similarities and differences between in both psychophysiological data and subjective ratings of mental workload between simulated and real flight. Nine student pilots flew the same exercise first in a simulator and one or two days later in real flight. The simulator had no display of the outside world and no motion. The results show that the two different psychophysiological recording devices have a very high degree of correspondance. The results also indicate that the student pilots have similar reactions in the simulator as they do in real flight. This was true for most flight phases; however, on some occations the reactions were quite different. These differences are attributed to differences in the way the exercise was performed in the simulator and in real flight. The lack of visual system in the simulator seemed to have an effect on the final landing phase. The results validate the use of the simulator, but more importantly, the results validate the method for a human-factors validation of a simulator.