![](media/image1.jpeg){width="1.320138888888889in"
height="1.1298611111111112in"} **Fact**Sheet

National Aeronautics and

Space Administration

**Ames** **Research** **Center**

Moffett Field, California 94035-1000 October 2002

SUPPORTING NASA'S AIRSPACE SYSTEMS PROGRAM

## AOS Project brings human factors focus to AS Program capacity and mobility goals

![](media/image2.jpeg){width="3.5in" height="2.31875in"}

> Photo by NASA Ames

**Pilot brainwave activity is monitored in the Crew Vehicle System
Research Facility's Boeing 747-400 Simulator during a study to determine
fatigue, sleep loss and circadian rhythm disruption during long- and
extra-long-haul flights.**

Making its official debut October 1 as one of four projects comprising
the Airspace Systems (AS) Program, the former Airspace Operations
Systems (AOS) Research and Technology Base Program transitioned to the
AOS Project in fiscal 2003 as part of a comprehensive Aerospace
Technology Enterprise program reformulation plan. The Airspace Systems
(AS) Program---itself reformulated from NASA's former Aviation Systems
Capacity Program---is dedicated to two major NASA goals in global civil
aviation: to triple aviation system capacity by 2022; and to cut
doorstep-to-destination travel time by half.

Safely achieving such increases in the capacity and mobility of an
increasingly dense National Airspace System (NAS) will require a new
generation of highly automated, complex air transportation system (ATS)
tools and technologies. It will also place additional burdens on pilots
and air traffic controllers (ATCs) by significantly increasing their
cognitive, perceptual and physiological workload. Understanding how to
minimize that workload is where the AOS Project provides support. The
project aims to ensure through sound design principles and operational
guidelines that the advanced automation, interfaces and operations
associated with next-generation ATS tools and technologies never
contributes to human error or needlessly increases, complicates or
interferes with pilot or operator workload.

In pursuit of that aim, the AOS Project pioneers research on the
interactions between pilots, ATCs, and other operators of ground,
satellite and vehicle systems, with an emphasis on human factors and
performance issues---in particular the cognitive, perceptual and
physiological aspects of the way that people process information, make
decisions, collaborate with one another and interact with automatic
systems.

Specific performance objectives in the project's area of research aim
to 1) identify, develop and verify advanced technology concepts, methods
and procedures; 2) transfer the results to industry and other government
agencies for use in designing advanced systems; 3) provide a foundation
for systems technology; and 4) contribute facilities and human factors
expertise to industry and government.

##### AOS Research Teams 

Three teams conduct AOS research activities: Human-Automation
Integration (HAIR), Human Error and Countermeasures (HEC), and
Psychological and Physiological Stressors and Factors (PPSF).

The HAIR research team develops and validates formal methods for
human-automation design, analyzes flight control systems and known
automation-induced errors, and develops formal methodologies for
demonstrating cost effective designs for displays and operational
procedures. This year, researchers will develop a preliminary cognitive
architecture for analyzing and predicting human performance in complex
aerospace systems. The results will improve accuracy in predicting human
error, reduce design time and minimize design-induced errors.

HEC researchers develop training protocols, operational procedures and
technologies to reduce the potential for human error in aerospace
operations and optimize human performance in flight-critical situations.
Areas of inquiry include risk and uncertainty in team decision-making,
attention span while performing concurrent tasks, pilot and controller
communication, pilot "situation awareness," and the impact of fatigue on
performance. This year, researchers will develop training protocols
aimed at improving communication between airline pilots and FAA
controllers as a means of reducing errors.

The PPSF research team explores the perceptual, cognitive, and
physiological processes that people use to detect, interpret and
interact with information from the external environment---e.g. aircraft
cockpits and ATC towers. Researchers conduct fundamental and applied
studies with volunteer human subjects. This year, researchers will
develop cognitive and physiological computational models to enable
designers of high fidelity displays and aerospace systems to predict and
assess pilot and controller performance while executing several tasks
concurrently. Research will also assess pilot performance during periods
of periods of mental fatigue, boredom, complacency and other "hazardous
states of awareness."

## AOS Customers 

Customers across the international aerospace community use AOS Project
case studies, rapid prototype environments, methodologies, models,
metrics, training protocols and other research products. Customers
include:

-   Designers of flight deck displays, windscreen layouts, simulator
    visual systems, unmanned aerial vehicle control stations, and 2^nd^
    and 3^rd^ generation shuttle cockpit upgrades

-   Evaluators of aerospace accidents and incidents

-   International standards committees

-   US Navy

-   FAA

-   Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

-   Department of Transportation

-   Boeing, Airbus and other commercial airline companies, especially
    those with long-haul and ultra-long-haul flights

#### Research Facilities

[human factors labs]{.smallcaps}

-   Human-Centered Systems Lab

-   General Aviation (GA) Simulator Lab

-   Fatigue Countermeasures Lab

-   Team Decision-Making Lab

-   Memory Task Management Lab

-   Vestibular Research Facility

-   Vertical Motion Simulator

-   20-G Human-Rated Centrifuge

-   Vision Research Lab and Facilities

-   Virtual Environment Lab

-   Haptics Lab

-   Spatial Auditory Lab

-   Electro-Micrography Lab

-   Cockpit Display of Traffic Information Lab

-   Center TRACON Automation System (CTAS) Automation Lab

-   Air-Ground Integration lab

-   Datalink Lab

-   North Texas Facility for CTAS

*[crew vehicle system research facility]{.smallcaps}*

-   Boeing 747-400 Simulator

-   Advanced Concepts Flight Simulator

-   Air Traffic Control Simulator

###### 

###### general aviaiton simulator 

-   Generic device used to simulate single/dual engine general aviation
    aircraft

[airborne integrated research experiments]{.smallcaps}

-   B-757 aircraft and simulator

*For more information, visit
[www.asc.nasa.gov](http://www.asc.nasa.gov/) and
[www.aos.arc.nasa.gov](http://www.aos.arc.nasa.gov/) or contact the
Airspace Systems Program Office at (650) 604-1438.*

![](media/image3.png){width="3.279166666666667in"
height="2.4618055555555554in"}![](media/image4.png){width="3.2631944444444443in"
height="2.452777777777778in"}

Photos by NASA Ames

An AOS research scientist tracks pilot eye movement in the GA Simulator
Lab as part of continuing research in cockpit task management focused on
understanding factors affecting task prioritization on commercial flight
decks.