Task Interruption Management in Aeronautics: Contribution of an Augmented Reality Device: Task interruption in Aeronautics and Augmented Reality

Abstract

Many preflight actions have to be done before the departure. These different tasks have a high implication on crew resources. During this phase, the cockpit is not isolated from the rest of the airport. Pilots must perform their different scanflow and checklist while listening to the radio, answering to the other crew members and the ground staff... A French research team, a "Human Factor Pilot Club" named Egoak (Ergonomics Group Of Aeronautical Knowledge) wanted to know if these interruptions have an effect or not on the real crew performance and on the different feelings. It must have been typical to believe in the conventional fact that the loss of attention may increase the task load and the errors, but it would have been better to verify that hypothesis. The aim of this study is to test a new device (Augmented Reality tool) that would be able to point the last device checked in the cockpit before the interruption. For this purpose, 18 pilots participated in an experiment including an increasingly high mental workload. The results show that the augmented reality tool is able to decrease the error rate.