Haptic shared control systems for helicopters based on pilot intent estimation

Haptic shared control systems have been recently introduced as an alternative solution to automation. These systems share the control with the human operator through forces on the control device, which make the operator always aware of the state of the system and require the operator to be constantly active: haptic aids support the human operator in manual control tasks while keeping the operator in-the-loop. Use of these systems was demonstrated to improve task performance while reducing pilot control effort. Haptic systems are commonly designed to track known predefined target trajectories, e.g. road center line in a car driving task or reference roll/pitch angles in a compensatory tracking task. However, in many realistic scenarios the target trajectory is not always available a priori. For instance, the target trajectory is not known in advance when considering a helicopter pilot flying in free-flight in free airspace. In such case, the pilot is free to choose any possible maneuver at any time. Therefore, to support the pilot with a haptic aid that helps him/her to track the intended trajectories, estimation of pilot intent is crucial. The goal of the research was to design and evaluate haptic shared control systems as guidance assistance systems for minimally-trained helicopter pilots when a target trajectory is not available to the system in advance. To achieve this goal, first inference of pilot intent was carried, then haptic feedback algorithms were implemented to help the pilots to accomplish their intended maneuvers. To achieve this goal, different estimators were developed to infer pilots' intent and haptic feedback algorithms were implemented to allow shared control. Finally, pilot-in-the-loop experiments with minimally-trained participants were conducted using a fixed-base simulator. The results of the research contributed to increase knowledge in the design of haptic shared control systems, with particular focus on the aerospace field