New Software Tool Visualizes Spatial Disorientation in Airplane Safety Events Dr. Eric Groen Senior scientist, TNO Co-authors: Dr. Mark Houben, TNO Prof. Jelte Bos, TNO Mr. Jan Bos, TNO 1
Research area Pilot performance in adverse (motion) conditions Spatial Disorientation (SD) Motion sickness Upset recovery Simulation & modeling 2
Motivation Boeing study (1991 2008) in commercial aviation SD important factor in ~1 fatal mishap per year Suspected SD events since study completion Tucuti; 737-200 Toledo; DC-8 Belvidere; Convair 580 Guilin; 737-300 Siberia; A310-300 Charlotte; DC-9 Khabarovsk; Tu154 Hsin-Chu; Saab 340 Bahrain; A320 Zurich; Saab 340 London; 747 Irkutsk; Tu154 Oslo; 757-200 Sharm el-sheikh; 737-300 Sulawesi; 737-400 Sochi; A320 Perm; 737-500 Douala; 737-800 Beirut; 737-800 Tripoli; A330 Almaty; CRJ-200 Indonesia; A320-216 Kazan; 737-500 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 2000 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 2010 11 12 13 14 15 3
Motivation SD = mismatch between actual and perceived attitude ( Loss of upright ) Can lead to LOC-I or CFIT, when: Actual attitude not recognized Mismatch recognized, but managed incorrectly Contributing factors Lack of visual reference (Night, IMC) Distraction Crew resource management 4
SD in military aviation UK (Holmes et al., 2003) SD still a significant hazard of military flying USAF/NAVAIR (Gibb et al., 2010) SD cause in 33% of all mishaps 100% fatal RNLAF/TNO (2017 ongoing) Survey among military pilots on SD events 5
The Need No consistent analysis regarding potential vestibular illusions had been performed as part of the original investigations Need for standardized tool to determine SD from FDR data Hence: Development of SD identification Tool 6
Tool requirements Input: FDR data (aircraft motions) Output: Computes perceived up & rates Identifies vestibular illusions* Uses TNO perception model *No visual illusions included (yet): FDR data do not show visual inputs Cases provided by Boeing all occurred in IMC 7
TNO motion perception model Based on +20 years research on human motion perception Mathematical model on perceived self-motion & -orientation Vestibular-visual interactions 8
Vestibular system 9
Vestibular system Semicircular canals Respond to angular motion of the head Source: OpenStax-CNX module 10
Chair rotation Perceived rotation Vestibular system Semicircular canals Respond to angular motion of the head Transients, not constant velocity Modeled by High-Pass Filter 11
Vestibular system Otolith organs Respond to linear accelerations Inertial (translation) Gravity (tilt) Utricle 12
Tilt-translation ambiguity 13
Tilt-translation ambiguity Continuous eccentric rotation Modeled by Low-Pass Filter 14
SD identification Tool (SDiT) 15
SDiT components TNO motion perception model SD interpreter Graphical User Interface 16
SD taxonomy Set of criteria and thresholds to identify SD illusions 17
Graphical User Interface Identified SD illusions Animation Time histories of aircraft/perceived motion and attitude 18
SDiT validation (1/3) Basic flight maneuvers Coordinated turn: somatogyral illusion 19
SDiT validation (2/3) Basic flight maneuvers Takeoff: somatogravic illusion 20
SDiT validation (3/3) Man-in-the-loop scenario s in (SD) flight simulators, e.g., Perception thresholds Post-roll illusion Somatogravic illusion ASD (RNLAF, Soesterberg) Desdemona (TNO/AMST, Soesterberg) 21
Analysis of LOC-I accident B737-300 (Jan 2004) crash in Red Sea minutes after take-off Dark night, few visible cultural landmarks Slow transition from left climbing turn to right bank FO informed Captain (PF) that they were turning right: Captain: See what the aircraft did? FO: Turning right, sir Captain: What? FO: Aircraft turning right Captain: Turning right? How turning right? Further roll inputs to 110 before substantial control inputs in the opposite direction were made, but too late to avoid the crash
Analysis of LOC-I accident 23
SDiT customers Launched in 2016 Accident investigation Boeing, NTSB, Analysis of flight safety events: RNLAF, EASA, AIBN, CEFA, Airlines,
Next steps Visual module e.g., Brownout conditions De-briefing tool for (rotary wing) simulator training Coupling with gaze tracker for real-time feedback 25
For further information: eric.groen@tno.nl