Visual scene perception process involved in the manual approach

Abstract

The outside scene is often an important soiirce of information for manual control tasks. In the context of aircraft control the most important example is the visual approach scene. This study deals with modelling the visual scene perception process on the basis of linear perspective geometry and the relative motion cues and investigates its impact on aircraft approach performance. Model predictions utilizing visual threshold data from base-line experiments and psychophysical literature of a variety of visual approach tasks, are compared with the results of an experimental program. The results confirm that the visual scene may be assumed to provide a variety of cues among which the human operator has to divide his attention. Both the performance and workload results illustrate that the model provides a meaningful description of the outside world perception process with a useful predictive capability. Additional research, however, is warranted in order to be able to deal with the realistic, complex, timevarying manual approach and landing situation.