APTIMA INC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: N192-071

Description

The assessment of aircraft flying qualities and the resultant impact on pilot workload is critical for the evaluation and tuning of aircraft configurations. A reliance on subjective self-report ratings and an inability to account for cross-pilot variability lead to reliability concerns when evaluating flying qualities for aircraft under specific tasks and conditions. Despite advances in the quantitative measurement of pilot workload, there is no solution for generating objective workload assessments that are decoupled from the flight test parameters and environmental conditions that might influence them. In response to this need, Aptima will develop SWIFT: Sensors-based Workload Insight for Flight Testing. SWIFT will be a diagnostic toolkit for cost-effectively evaluating aircraft flying qualities through advanced workload measurement and performance assessment strategies. SWIFT will provide automated, continuous handling quality ratings (HQRs) from live flight environments through the use of physiological sensors and contextual models to account for flight test variables that impact pilot workload. This approach will drastically improve the quantity and quality of HQR data used to inform decisions made by flight test engineers. These data improvements will significantly increase the efficacy and efficiency of control law development and require fewer flight hours than current flight test protocols.