Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2020 Dec 1;91(12):932-939. doi: 10.3357/AMHP.5592.2020.
Pilot workload assessment plays an important role on flight safety evaluation, interface design, and airworthiness certification. The design of an effective and reliable workload assessment method is a difficult problem in the human factors field. This study proposed to assess pilot workload from four dimensions: cognitive activity, control activity, stress, and flight performance. A set of physiological, behavioral, and flight parameters were recorded and combined hierarchically to achieve overall workload assessment. A simulated flight experiment consisting of three flight phases (standard instrument departure, autopilot cruise, and nonprecision approach) was conducted to test the effectiveness of the proposed workload assessment method. Experimental results determined the changes of each objective measure. The overall workload index could significantly distinguish the difference in workload caused by changing task difficulty and the result was consistent with the NASA-TLX. The four workload dimensions provided detailed differences about workload: during nonprecision approach there were more control activities and stress than in other flight phases; during autopilot cruise there were the least control activities and the highest flight performance. The correlation between workload dimensions provided extra diagnostic information: the cognitive and control activities in the approach phase were more stressful than in the takeoff phase; the correlation between control activity and performance was higher in the approach phase than in the takeoff phase. This study proposed an effective pilot workload assessment method which could also provide detailed and diagnostic information. It could be used as an auxiliary tool for the development and evaluation of pilot-cockpit interaction.
飞行员工作量评估在飞行安全评估、界面设计和适航认证中起着重要作用。设计一种有效和可靠的工作量评估方法是人为因素领域的一个难题。本研究提出从认知活动、控制活动、应激和飞行性能四个维度评估飞行员的工作量。记录了一组生理、行为和飞行参数，并进行层次组合，以实现总体工作量评估。进行了一个模拟飞行实验，包括三个飞行阶段（标准仪表离场、自动驾驶巡航和非精密进近），以测试所提出的工作量评估方法的有效性。实验结果确定了每个客观测量的变化。总体工作量指数可以显著区分因任务难度变化引起的工作量差异，结果与 NASA-TLX 一致。四个工作量维度提供了关于工作量的详细差异：在非精密进近阶段，控制活动和应激比其他飞行阶段多；在自动驾驶巡航阶段，控制活动最少，飞行性能最高。工作量维度之间的相关性提供了额外的诊断信息：进近阶段的认知和控制活动比起飞阶段更具压力；进近阶段的控制活动与性能之间的相关性高于起飞阶段。本研究提出了一种有效的飞行员工作量评估方法，它还可以提供详细和诊断信息。它可以作为飞行员-驾驶舱交互的开发和评估的辅助工具。
