Modeling of Helicopter Pilot Misperception During Overland Navigation

Abstract

This thesis provides a framework to model human belief and misperception in helicopter overland navigation. Helicopter overland navigation is a challenging mission area because it is a complex cognitive task, and failing to recognize when the aircraft is off-course can lead to operational failures and mishaps. A human-in-the-loop experiment to investigate pilot misperception during simulated overland navigation by analyzing actual navigation trajectory, pilots perceived location, and corresponding confidence levels was designed. Fifteen military officers with prior overland navigation experience completed four simulated low-level navigation routes, two which entailed autonavigation. Analysis shows that there is not a negative correlation between perceived and actual location of the aircraft, inferring that confidence is not a good indicator of performance. There is however some evidence that there is a negative correlation between perceived location and intended route of flight, suggesting that there is a bias towards that intended flight route. If aviation personnel can proactively identify the circumstances in which usual misperception occur in navigation, they may reduce mission failure and mishap rate. Fleet squadrons and instructional commands can benefit from this study to improve operations that require low level flight while also improving crew resource management.