 |
|
|
Background Flight operations create fatigue, sleep loss, and circadian disruption leading to significant decrements in alertness and performance. Furthermore, the performance problems can occur before the degraded alertness is even detected and reversed. By increasing the chances of an accident or incident, these alertness and performance decrements reduce the margin of safety. The Hazardous States of Awareness sub-element develops and validates human response measurement technologies for assessing human attention and awareness hazards. Detection and prediction of error-related states can lead to improved designs, better training, and countermeasures and can be used to validate the effectiveness of each of these. These activities are in support of the goal of the Critical Technologies Program of the NASA Implementation Plan for the National Plan for Civil Aviation Human Factors (p. 34), and Recommendations SA-8 and SA-9 of the FAA Human Factors Team Report on The Interfaces between Flightcrews and Modern Flight Deck Systems. Practical significance of problems of Hazardous States of Awareness has been documented through content analysis of Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) reports. Objectives The objective of this sub-element include 1) Development and validation of methods and techniques for identifying hazardous states of awareness in automated-systems, and 2) the exploitation of opportunities to demonstrate dual-use applications of methods, techniques and principles in fields within aeronautics as well as beyond, such as in process control and medicine. Hazardous States of Awareness include, but are not limited to, the following categories:
Measurement technologies to assess Hazardous States of Awareness include behavioral (i.e. task performance, control inputs, errors), subjective (self reported), and physiological techniques. Particular emphasis is on state-of-the-art analysis techniques applied to physiological and performance data. Approach The approach taken includes establishing basic concepts and theories, developing and validating new concepts in collaboration with university researchers, proving innovative techniques through analysis, simulation, and laboratory testing, and, ultimately, demonstration of the most promising concepts in operational environment tests. Technology transfer mechanisms include demonstrations of methodological innovations to industry and media at NASA and at technology transfer expositions, through MOA (memoranda of agreement), and contributions to transfer publications and databases. Metrics include number of requests from customers and partners in aerospace and non-aerospace industries for our technology, and number of actual uses by customers. The current focus of the program is on the following issues:
Level 3 Milestones [Note: this task is funded entirely by the Aerospace Operations Systems Program Base R&T Program (548-50). Impending budget cuts in FY00-04 will eliminate this element, or force restructuring to include it in the Safety element (548-51). Restructuring the Safety element while retaining this task at the same level of effort will force elimination of one or more of the sub-tasks currently in the PMM and CMM sections of this sub-program.] FY98 Demonstrate crew engagement assessment
technology. Sub-Tasks Sub-Task 3-1: Fatigue Countermeasures Sub-Task 3-2: Hazardous States of Awareness Point of Contact Level 3 Program Lead - Lance Prinzel, Ph.D.
|
|
|
