GAZE-BASED INTERFACE FOR FLIGHT CONTROL: RESULTS OF INITIAL EXPERIMENTS WITH THE SYSTEM

Abstract

© 2021 32nd Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, ICAS 2021. All rights reserved.Cockpit flight control interfaces have remained largely unchanged since the beginnings of Aviation (sticks, yokes, pedals and thrust levers). New technologies have emerged that have successfully been employed in other fields of technology regarding Human-Machine interaction, one such technologies is eye tracking. The pilot is a fundamental element even in modern aircraft with high levels of computerized assistance. Emergency situations or environmental factors can lead to a situation were a pilot is overwhelmed by simultaneous tasks and this can lead to the conditions for an accident. With these points into consideration, a modernized flight control interface is proposed were Eye tracking is used as a complementary input for yokes, side sticks and pedals. Review of literature and previous research suggests that this application has considerable merit for its potential benefits, this paper is in regard of early experimentation using the system in a highly realistic flight simulator. The development uses equipment available at the Instituto Tecnologico de Aeronautica (ITA) to create a prototype that enables the characterization of the proposed a system. Results from this set of experiments contributed to the further refinement of the system, error correction, obtaining of operational experience and collection of data and feedback from participants that suggest that the proposed system could have a positive impact in the controlability of an aircraft by an inexperienced pilot during a high-workload situation.

Keywords