10 - Safety and Security
EXPLORATORY STUDY OF MENTAL WORKLOAD IN HELICOPTER AIR-TO-GROUND ROCKET FIRING
R.G. Cortes¹, E. Villani¹, M.M. Cardoso Júnior¹; ¹Aeronautics Institute of Technology, Brazil
Military flight maneuvers are known to be riskier and rely on individual performance. Indeed, pilots must do continuous training sections to acquire the cognitive skills required. For a helicopter rocket firing shot operational maneuver, the pilot performs a low-level flight using ground reference to navigate. Then, close to the mission target, he rapidly ascends the aircraft to aim at the target and fire rockets. To finalize, he performs an evade curve.rnDuring a Brazilian Army Aviation helicopter air-to-ground rocket firing training section, physiological data was collected from two experienced pilots who each performed a sequence of four operational maneuvers with diverse levels of engagement and fatigue. In this study, physiological quantitative measures were collected using eye tracker sensors, electrocardiogram (ECG), respiration rate (RESP), and galvanic skin response (GSR), and qualitative data was collected using the NASA-TLX scale. Aside from mental workload measurements, recorded flight data was also available and used for obtaining pilot performance on the stabilization of the aircraft during the shot.rnMental workload was analyzed over mission segments, showing that ECG parameters were able to identify the more stressful phase using ultra-short-term heart variability analysis. Statistical comparison, correlation analysis, and principal component analysis indicated GSR and ECG data are more related to performance variation than other variables, and these data could identify the more stressed pilot. The questionnaires and NASA-TLX scores also complement the quantitative data findings.rnEye tracker data was considered corrupted due to the interaction with the crew’s helmet, but it was possible to identify that during the aiming phase, the pilot's attention is focused only on the target and no other parameters are observed.rnResults have shown that mental workload is able to quan