Study On Eye Movement Patterns Of Pilot’s Under The Flight Simulation Tasks

Flight tasks are highly dependent on Visual,not only require meticulous attention toaccomplish precise control action, but also need to quickly scan the environment to obtainsituational awareness(SA). Eye Tracking Device is based on infrared light recording thecorneal reflection, to record the eye movements in real-time. With the rapid developmentof eye movement technique, eye movement recording also received a large number ofapplications in the field of flight. Eye movement indicators (such as: dwell time, fixedpoint etc.) can directly reflect the individual psychological process. Therefore, throughanalyzing of the pilot’s eye movement process can understand its attention distribution inthe process of performing tasks allocation, and then analyzes its working load and fatiguestate.In order to further investigate the eye patterns in the process of flight, understand itsattention distribution rule and the visual processing, This study analyzes the generalcharacters of the pilot’s eye, and use the expert-novice paradigm at the same time.Because the flight in the curriculum, there is no clear standards define the expert, therefore,the pilots were divided into group of skilled pilots and novice. The experiment by simulating flights of climbing and flipping tasks has collected the subjects of eyemovement indicators. Analysis and contrast the two sets of pilot time to complete the task,the accuracy of complete the task, the differences between the eye movement indicators,in order to understand and to explore different levels of pilots in the cognitive model ofdifferent cognitive load and attention distribution. The results of the study can provide thereferences for the novice pilot training and cockpit layout design.First experiment selected the simulated flight in meter spatial orientation rainingsimulator. This subject requires pilots to simulated simulating the real flight course on thesimulator. Our experiment choice the climbing and flipping task, and wear the eyemovement in the process of experiment, to observe and record the eye movement in theprocess of flight, at the end of the experiment of pilot to record the completing task timeand eye movement indices. Because of this experiment is to measure the pilot underdifferent task difficulty their general attention allocation and cognitive load in the processof flying, so18pilot are chosen at random, distribution of age at27~38years old, Theirage distribution in25~38, their total flight time between300~2,300hours and flight Su-30of this kind plane’ flight time is between150~1800hours.The second experiment selected the simulated flight in meter spatial orientationraining simulator. We chose the flipping task and wear the eye movement in the process ofexperiment, to observe and record the eye movement in the process of flight and Recordthe flight performance and eye movement indices similar between the two groups. the totalfight time of skilled group is1500hours, the novice group is under200hours.Experiment one: The eye movement index analysis under different task difficulty:1.The distribution of fixed points. In climbing task, there were no significant differencesbetween area of interests (AOIs)(p>0.05), in turn, in flipping task, there were significantdifferences between area of interests (p <0.05).2. The distribution of dwell time inclimbing task. There were no significant differences between area of interests (AOIs)(p>0.05), in turn, In flipping task, there were significant differences between area of interests(p <0.05).3. The average pupil size. Under the two different kind of flight tasks, theaverage pupil size between the three kinds of instrument and integrated display significant differences (p <0.05), in turn, the average pupil size in flipping task were less thanclimbing task.4. The average sweep amplitude. The pilot’s average sweep amplitude was8.50±4.33(°) under the flipping task; it’s12.56±5.49(°) under climbing task, there wassignificant difference between two task（sp <0.05）. This suggested that the scanning rangehad relation with the task difficulty, the average saccade amplitude decreased with the riseof the task’s difficulties.Experiment two: Comparison of the flight performance between skilled pilots andnovice.1. Task’s completion time. The competition time of the skilled pilots was50.5±10.2（s）, The competition time of the novice pilots was62.1±11.5（s）.2. Altitude difference.The altitude error of the skilled pilots was10.2±2.4（m），The altitude error of the novicepilots was32.8±6.5（m）.3. Yaw angle. The yaw angle of the skilled pilots was4.8±1.7(o)，The yaw angle of the novice pilots was15.2±4.4(o). Comparison of eye movementIndices between skilled pilots and novice:1.The pilots had differences on fixationfrequency、saccade frequency、saccade amplitude、fixation time and saccade amplitude.There were shorter fixation time，bigger saccade amplitude, wider saccade amplitude,bigger saccade velocity, better Saccade frequency and big saccade frequency of the skilledpilots than novice pilots.2. The difference of the percentage of dwell time among theAIOs.1. Novice pilots on the out view and altimeter had more fixation time, otherwise, theskilled pilots contributed more time on Comprehensive electronic screens and less time onthe out view. Other areas relatively balanced time.3. The Most of fixed points weredistributed on out view and the least points on comprehensive electronic screens ofnovice pilots. On the contrary, the skilled pilots had allocated most fixed points onComprehensive electronic screens and the least points on the out view. Number of fixationpoint for the two groups of pilots with t test, we found that there was significant differencebetween two grounds of their fixed points on Comprehensive electronic screens and theout view（p <0.05）.4. The average pupil size of the AOIs under the two groups. Therewere significant differences between two groups of the pilot’s pupil size on the out view,horizon and comprehensive electronic screens（p <0.05）,but had no differences onaltimeter and altimeter. This study selected several men from pilots who made his health convalescence inAir Force Hangzhou aviation medicine Identification and training Center from November2011to March2012. Their age distribution in25~38, their total flight time between300~2,300hours and flight Su-30of this kind plane’ flight time is between150~1800hours. Completion of the flight simulation tasks according to the experimentalrequirements, draw the eye movements of the pilot indicators, the statistical analysis ofthese indicators.Results:1、The results indicated that there were more fixed point, longer dwell time in IP, theless pupil size in cockpit instrument on the task of flip the plane. Sweeping amplitudediminished with increased task difficulty.2、It was found that the differences between skilled pilots and novice lay on not onlyin flight performance but also in eye movement pattern.3、The pilot in the cockpit allocate more fixation and fixation time in the simulatedflights. Provide the basis for the rational design of the cockpit.4、The eye movement pattern of experts bring lower mental workload than the novice.Consequence:The pilots had more fixed point and longer dwell time on the cockpit instrument. Sothe novice can fix theirs attention on the cockpit instrument. It also provides the referencefor the reasonable design of cockpit instrument. The more difficulties on the mission of thenovice, the more mental load and the less scan range The skilled pilots more concise andeffective eye movement and lower mental workload. This reminder us that we shouldestablish efficient eye patterns in the training of the novice.