Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2005

City

Dayton

Abstract

Some workplace have been widely changed with regard to their automation process, which has promoted a more complex environment concerning the task performance, demanding to the operator the introducing of new abilities. In the aeronautic activity the workload also has been diversified, as the mental demand has been enhanced. The needs of determining the impact of the workload on the operator due to such work place, evidencing a more complex nature, shows to be more important, mainly when looking at the certification requirements for new aircraft development. Such certification process is responsible for determining the minimum aircrew necessary, based on the distribution of the cabin workload, as well as keeping the situation awareness during the different phases of the flight. This study uses psychological and physiological methods of measurements to evaluate the workload in real situation during the end of the certification process of an aircraft, aiming at to identify potential methods to be implemented during the whole certification process. A protocol of workload evaluation was implemented based on the use of interview, NASA-TLX scale, heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV). Two pilots participated in the study. The measurements and interviews were conducted during flights performed in the final certification process of an aircraft produced in Brazil. A total of six take-off and six landings performed during three consecutive days were evaluated. Each route was previously determined, which involved some abnormal situations according to an established program for the evaluation of the aircraft in terms of human factor requirements. The data analysis was performed in a descriptive and qualitative basis due to the peculiarity of each task. Preliminary results indicate the landing to be more stressful than take-off, and for such situations, the pilot flying (PF) had the more workload during the tasks than the pilot monitoring (PM). When comparing all flights and their tasks, no important difference between the HR and HRV was observed, but, again, the landing showed a little higher stressful than take-off for the PF, as evidenced by the HR. However, the general results, including those from NASA-TLX, suggested a low workload for all tasks. With regards to the interviews, the more pronounced mental demands reported by the pilots in managing any fault of the aircraft were in those tasks that required anticipation, attention and monitoring procedures. Future studies should be conducted with the whole certification process and other scenarios in order to test the applicability of the methodology employed in the present study.

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