PILOT PERFORMANCE AND PREFERENCE FOR SHORT CYCLES OF AUTOMATION IN ADAPTIVE FUNCTION ALLOCATION

The present experiment examined pilot response to the rapid cycling of automation. The experiment was conducted using a multi-task simulatio n environment consisting of tracking, fuel management, and system moni toring sub-tasks, Monitoring and fuel management sub-tasks were perfor med manually in all conditions, The tracking sub-task cycled between m anual and automated control at fixed intervals of either 15, 30 or 60 sec. These cycle times were completely crossed with three levels of tr acking difficulty giving nine within-subject conditions which lasted 5 min each. Performance was measured on each of the sub tasks, as was p ilot fatigue level and subjective workload for the respective conditio ns. Results indicated that both difficulty and cycle duration signific antly affected tracking performance which was degraded with task diffi culty and longer cycle times, Fuel management and system monitoring pe rformance were unaffected by tracking difficulty and automation durati on, However, a subsequent analysis was conducted using the 15 sec peri od immediately following each automation episode as a 'window' of perf ormance. A different pattern of results was observed. Tracking perform ance was similarly affected by difficulty, but was no longer affected by cycle duration, Furthermore, fuel management error indicated a tren d toward better performance in low difficulty conditions. Results illu strate micro trade-offs within sub-tasks and macro trade-offs between sub-tasks. Overall, the results support the contention that excessivel y short cycles of automation prove disruptive to performance in multi- task conditions.