ABSTRACT
Human factor is the most common reason for aircraft accident. Therefore, an improvement of pilot–aircraft interaction by vibrotactile feedback is a way of increasing the safety of flight. This study focuses on the ability of pilot to distinguish directional vibration of a control stick and react in a specific direction. To investigate the intuitive reaction of a pilot on directional vibration, human–machine experiment was carried out. For the experiment, aircraft control stick was replaced by a joystick. The task involved the reaction to the directional vibrations of segments mounted on the joystick by an intuitive reaction. A hypothesis that a human can distinguish directional vibration of the control stick and react in specific directions was confirmed with an error rate of approximately 5%. The experiment was carried out with a prescribed way of holding the joystick in hand. This fact limits results generalization. Future work aims at designing new feedback hardware and analyzing the influence of different ways of stick holding.
