US-German Joint In-flight and Simulator Evaluation of Collective Tactile Cueing for Torque Limit Avoidance: Shaker versus Soft Stop

Abstract

The demonstration and testing of tactile cueing was the subject of a common research undertaking by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation & Missile Center and the German Aerospace Center. The primary objective was to test a torque protection system with both a stick shaking cue generated with an attachable stick shaker and a soft stop cue generated by an active inceptor system. It was tested by five pilots in flight on the RASCAL JUH-60A helicopter and by four pilots in the ground-based simulator of the ACT/FHS (H-135) research helicopter based on a common set of high-performance takeoff mission profiles. The qualitative evaluation showed that the soft stop provided a greater workload reduction than the shaker and was the preferred cue. However, a shaker cue is a promising alternative when the application of an active inceptor system is not possible.