Anticipatie en actieve stuurmiddelen bij helikopterbesturing [Anticipation and active controls in helicopter flight]
report
In the present study, effects of anticipation and active controls were investigated for nap-of-the-earth flying in a simulated helicopter. Pilots were requested to fly as accurately as possible through a 'tunnel-in-the-sky' with horizontal curves. Primary performance measure was the RMS deviation of the optimal trajectory, in the horizontal as well as in the vertical plane. A pilot investigation determined the optimal visual preview (receptor anticipation) in terms of the number of gates of the tunnel. A second experiment focused on the effect of prerequisite knowl-edge (cognitive anticipation) concerning the trajectory including a visual second-ary task in half of the conditions. Subjects were also instructed to fly as fast as possible. The data showed that cognitive anticipation enhanced horizontal (pursuit) and vertical (compensatory) accuracy under single-tasks conditions, as well as under dual-task conditions. However, this was not the case for flying speed or secondary-task performance. In the third, and final, experiment, effects of two joystick types were investigated: an active cyclic and an active collective. An active cyclic provides feedback about radial acceleration in curves (pursuit) and an active collective provides feedback about vertical speed (compensatory). Under high task load (dual-task conditions) clear positive effects of joystick type were found, both in terms of task performance (deviation from the optimal course) and task load (secondary-task performance). This effect counted espe-cially for the compensatory task, i.e., altitude maintenance, aided by the active collective joystick.
TNO Identifier
7813
Publisher
TNO
Place of publication
Soesterberg
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