The use of flight simulators in flying training has become increasingly prevalent due to advances in technology and the benefits that they offer. Advances have led to high levels of fidelity in terms of flight dynamics and systems representation. In relative contrast, little attention has been directed towards the psychological fidelity of simulators, which currently means that core aspects of airmanship (e.g., communication, decision-making, situational awareness) are often not adequately fostered by their use. Simulated Air Traffic Control Environment (SATCE) solutions offer an under-examined method to partially address these shortfalls.
To examine this, a virtual reality based commercial-off-the-shelf flight simulator was coupled with SATCE software. The software injected representative airborne entities into the simulator and provided interactive Air Traffic Control (ATC) via natural language processing. Eighteen participants completed two flight tasks: a normal circuits task, and a general handling task. These tasks were completed in several conditions which were randomised across participants: (1) sterile control conditions, where the SATCE was not enabled, (2) ATC alone enabled, (3) both ATC and entities enabled. Workload, situational awareness, instructor ratings of flight performance, presence, and system voice recognition accuracy were measured.
Results showed that overall workload only increased when both ATC and airborne entities were injected into the simulator. The results from the situational awareness measure, suggest that this was due to the increased attentional demands inherent within this condition. Ratings of presence increased in the ATC alone condition. Voice recognition accuracy was acceptable but could have been improved through more regional-specific amendments to the speech recognition engine. In conclusion, a SATCE offers a promising method to increase the workload and attentional demands placed on aviators in simulators. Further work is required to test SATCE solutions, in an experimentally controlled manner, during actual flying training pipelines.
Keywords
AUGMENTED AND VIRTUAL REALITY (AR/VR), FIDELITY, FLIGHT SIMULATION, FLIGHT TRAINING
Additional Keywords