Development and Evaluation of Coupling Modes and Haptic Functions enabled by Active Inceptor in Cockpits

Abstract

The potential uses of Active Side-Stick Units (ASSU) technology far exceed solely the case of fully programmable haptic feedbacks to one single pilot or the capability to generate haptic cueing for Flight Envelope Protection functions. Indeed, in dual pilot configurations, the capability to electronically link ASSU enables the coupling of the motions of the Pilot Flying (PF) and Pilot Monitoring (PM) controllers and opens potential new modes of communication between pilots, as well as between crew and Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS) when upper modes are engaged. The EFAICTS (Ergonomic impact and new Functions induced by Active Inceptor integration in CockpiTS) project, started in December 2018, received funding from the Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 820884. ONERA was the project coordinator and Safran Electronics & Defense the Topic Leader. The EFAICTS project proposed to develop and integrate coupling and haptic functions for both Pilot/Co-pilot and Crew/Autopilot interactions along a Human-Centered Design approach, in which the end-users (i.e. pilots) were at the heart of the development, from the beginning of the project to the final evaluation phase. The paper focuses on the flight scenarios definition; the PF/PM/AFCS interactions definition; the development of specific haptic feedbacks and ASSU coupling functions. All the concepts developed and assessed through modelling and intermediate tests were finally evaluated by experienced pilots on the ONERA simulation bench. The main results are presented in the paper.