Human response efficiency analysis in automated aircraft cockpit displays designs

Abstract

Human error has been implicated in a 70% in civil aviation accidents. It appears that interventions aimed at reducing the occurrence of consequences of human error has not been as effective as those directed at mechanical failures. Clearly, if accidents are to be reduced further, more emphasis must be placed on the genesis of human error as it relates to accident causation. The aim of this thesis is to study and compare aircraft glass cockpit displays in human interaction performance. The study is focused in Airbus and Boeing designs, the two main companies in large range commercial flights. The first step has been to determine glass cockpit displays differences and most common failures during a flight, therefore the focus of the study is in aircraft engine display. Straightaway, a deeply examination of the different characteristics and performances has been useful to identify the parameters that can influence a better reaction of the crew in an aircraft engine failure situation. Those parameters are the direction of the scale in the meter, the existence of a reminder of the critical number, a blinking warning meter and an external warning button. Consequently, in order to recreate the display performance during an engine failure in an experiment, ten different models have been simulated using both Photoshop and Flash C6 software. Eight of the models are isolated parameter designs, the other two are a recreation of Airbus and Boeing designs. Since the experiment seeks to study human interaction, eye tracker Tobii T60 has been able to provide the instantaneous gaze point through the display and its length in time. Thus, 10 volunteers had been enrolled in the experiment, obtaining 500 results in order to do an exhaustive statistical analysis. The results were clear, Airbus design had better accuracy results and lower timing performance than Boeing. Moreover, the results from the isolated parameter models pointed the same direction. Those parameters extracted from Airbus design (blinking warning meter and left-to-right scaled meter) had a better performance as well. Even though, the external warning button extracted from Boeing design, had a lower timing performance in reaction to the alert, it appeared to be irrelevant to the complete task (reaction plus reading). According to the results, it is a fact that there is a different performance depending on the engine display design, and Airbus stands to gain. Furthermore, the study discloses that more improvements can be done in commercial aircraft glass cockpits to improve aviation safety.