IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - April 2021 - 23

Ernst et al.

Figure 4.
Two pages of the developed obstacle awareness symbology for the VCI. The display switches from the approach to the hover page
when passing a certain distance to the desired hover position. The black background corresponds to transparent areas in the
see-through HWD.

symbology [23]. Figure 5 illustrates how the whole
system appears to the pilot during a landing maneuver
on an offshore platform. The conformal landing symbology (CLS) was initially developed for approaches
and landings in DVE. It comprises a contact analog
circle highlighting the desired touchdown position.
Furthermore, a rectangular frame provides a reference
that is still in sight when the pilot hovers directly
above the landing position. This reference frame supports the rough positioning and gives additional attitude cues. Two bracket symbols are used for the
precise longitudinal positioning. The desired landing
spot is reached when the brackets are aligned with the
gap in the front edge of the rectangular frame. In addition, a ball indicates the precise longitudinal and lateral deviation relative to the center of the forward
edge of the virtual landing pad. It is additionally stimulated with a prediction from the current ground speed.

Figure 5.
Pilot's view during the landing maneuver with the superimposed
symbology generated by the monochrome green JEDEYE helmet.
The symbol set comprises a head-up PFD (center of the image),
DLR's visual conformal landing symbology (lower center), and
the developed VCI-OAWD (upper left).

APRIL 2021

Details on the development and evaluation of this symbology are given by Schmerwitz et al. [23].

EVALUATION METHOD
We conducted two simulator studies to assess our VCI
implementation. This section describes the methods of
both experiments.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The overall research goal for both evaluation studies was
to get initial feedback on our novel VCI-OAWD. The
intent was to investigate if our approach is a useful addition to state-of-the-art flight guidance displays. Moreover,
we wanted to gather suggestions for possible improvements of the symbology.
Study I. As discussed in the section " Virtual Cockpit
Instruments, " VCIs can be positioned in many ways.
Thus, the focus of the first experiment was on the selection
of the most promising positioning options. Furthermore,
we tested different VCI sizes and had a look at the interaction with the head-up PFD symbology. The condensed
number of feasible VCI variants and all other findings
formed the basis for our second study.
Study II. For the second evaluation, we further
improved our VCI implementation based on the initial
feedback. The first study was conducted in a fully immersive VR setup where the pilot's view through the HWD
was emulated with VR goggles (details below). This time,
we assessed the preselected variants in an advanced simulation environment with DLR's flight-certified seethrough HWD. Thereby, we wanted to confirm that the
positive reception from the first study also holds true
under these more realistic conditions.

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IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - April 2021

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