Aircraft Pilots Workload Analysis: Heart Rate Variability Objective Measures and NASA-Task Load Index Subjective Evaluation
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Open AccessArticleAircraft Pilots Workload Analysis: Heart Rate Variability Objective Measures and NASA-Task Load Index Subjective Evaluation byAndrea Alaimo 1, Antonio Esposito 1,*, Calogero Orlando 1 and Andre Simoncini 2 1Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Kore University of Enna, 94100 Enna, Italy2Istituto de Engenharia Mecanica, Universidade Federal de Itajubá—UNIFEI, Minas Gerais 37500-903, Brazil*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Aerospace 2020, 7(9), 137; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace7090137 (registering DOI)Received: 30 July 2020 / Revised: 9 September 2020 / Accepted: 14 September 2020 / Published: 16 September 2020Download PDFCite This PaperAbstractWorkload and fatigue of aircraft pilots represent an argument of great interest in the framework of human factors and a pivotal point to be considered in aviation safety. 75% of aircraft accidents are related to human errors that, in most cases, are due to high level of mental workload and fatigue. There exist several subjective or objective metrics to quantify the pilots’ workload level, with both linear and nonlinear relationships reported in the literature. The main research objective of the present work is to analyze the relationships between objective and subjective workload measurements by looking for a correlation between metrics belonging to the subjective and biometric rating methods. More particularly, the Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is used for the objective analysis, whereas the NASA-TLX questionnaire is the tool chosen for the subjective evaluation of the workload. Two different flight scenarios were considered for the studies: the take-off phase with the initial climb and the final approach phase with the landing. A Maneuver Error Index (MEI) is also introduced to evaluate the pilot flight performance according to mission requirements. Both qualitative and quantitative correlation analyses were performed among the MEI, subjective and objective measurements. Monotonic relationships were found within the HRV indexes, and a nonlinear relationship is proposed among NASA-TLX and HRV indexes. These findings suggest that the relationship between workload, biometric data, and performance indexes are characterized by intricate patterns of nonlinear relationships.Keywords: aircraft pilots; mental workload; NASA-TLX; heart rate variability; performance index; nonlinear correlation aircraft pilots; mental workload; NASA-TLX; heart rate variability; performance index; nonlinear correlationThis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedShare and CiteMDPI and ACS StyleAlaimo, A.; Esposito, A.; Orlando, C.; Simoncini, A. Aircraft Pilots Workload Analysis: Heart Rate Variability Objective Measures and NASA-Task Load Index Subjective Evaluation. Aerospace 2020, 7, 137.
AMA StyleAlaimo A, Esposito A, Orlando C, Simoncini A. Aircraft Pilots Workload Analysis: Heart Rate Variability Objective Measures and NASA-Task Load Index Subjective Evaluation. Aerospace. 2020; 7(9):137.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAlaimo, Andrea; Esposito, Antonio; Orlando, Calogero; Simoncini, Andre. 2020. "Aircraft Pilots Workload Analysis: Heart Rate Variability Objective Measures and NASA-Task Load Index Subjective Evaluation." Aerospace 7, no. 9: 137.
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» Reference: Aerospace 2020, Vol. 7, Page 137
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement Nº 768737