Touch on the flight deck: The impact of display location, size, touch technology & turbulence on pilot performance

With the advent and introduction of Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) enabling technologies onto the flight deck, there comes many considerations to ensure airworthiness, flight integrity, and acceptable flight crew performance of these relatively new flight deck controls. A study was conducted to help understand the impact of flight turbulence, display location, display size, and touch technology on task performance, workload, and fatigue for pilots flying a medium-fidelity motion flight simulator. Twenty four pilots were run through the study. Each pilot completed a variety of touch screen tasks, including menu navigation, data entry, and map panning. Turbulence levels included none, light, and moderate; display locations included the forward panel, inboard, outboard, and overhead; touch screen sizes included eight-inch and fifteen-inch (diagonal); and touch screen technologies included projected-capacitive (PCAP) and resistive. Electromyography (EMG) was used to capture muscle activations at the forearm and shoulder. Dependent measures included touch screen task time, errors, muscle activation, and perceptions of workload and fatigue. The results of this study revealed various human factors issues associated with the application of touch screen controls on the flight deck. In regards to turbulence levels, pilots committed more errors, had increased task time, and reported higher subjective fatigue in moderate turbulence. Touch screen location was found to be an important factor for task performance. Pilots committed more errors, took more time to complete the data entry and menu navigation tasks, and reported higher shoulder fatigue when the touch screen controller (TSC) was at both the outboard and overhead locations. The results are intended to help inform the development of guidelines and recommendations for the integration of touch screen controls into flight decks.