Helicopter In-Flight Eye Tracking: System Integration Aspects and First Results

Abstract

In modern helicopters highly accurate flight state data is available through precise sensors and complex fusion algorithms in the aircraft. This data is used by the avionic systems and transported to the pilot through sophisticated human-machine interfaces (HMIs). Especially in helicopters, the pilot is in most flight phases directly involved in the control of the aircraft and uses the information provided by the HMI. However, in most civil aircraft no sensor systems exist to get an insight about the pilots physiological state. Even in experimental helicopters there is no real-time information about the pilots mental state and this information is typically gathered through questionnaires in the debriefing. One way to close this gap is to use physiological measurement systems such as eye tracking. In our work we integrated an eye tracking system into the experimental system of DLR's research simulator AVES and the research helicopter ACT/FHS. In this paper we describe the first steps, which include the selection of the systems, technical aspects of the hardware and software integration process and first experiments in DLR's Bo 105 helicopter and DLR's AVES simulator. Details of our developed toolchain for the live data conditioning are given and first results of combined helicopter state and eye tracking data are presented. In the end we give an outlook on the next integration steps, which include the combination with a high-fidelity head tracking system.