Evaluating Simple Vibrotactile Feedback for Manual Glideslope Landings in Urban Air Mobility Simulation

Abstract: Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is a transportation system that integrates vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft into the National Airspace System, with the goal of transporting passengers and small goods within metropolitan areas. Although the vehicles are capable of VTOL, a glideslope landing approach was studied due to its advantage over VTOL in air traffic management coordination, energy consumption and passenger comfort. This study evaluated whether vibrotactile feedback improved manual glideslope landing performance when applied to the wrist on the dominant versus non-dominant arm. Participants performed glide slope landing using recommended flight parameters provided on a glideslope display to descend and land at a vertiport. Using a CAVE virtual reality simulation, sixteen novice, non-pilot participants completed 18 simulated landings at three different vertiports along two arrival entry routes (clockwise and counterclockwise direction) under three tactile feedback conditions: no feedback, feedback on dominant arm, and feedback on non-dominant arm. Performance data and subjective ratings of workload, usability, and situational awareness were collected. There was no significant effect of feedback condition. However, participants found the wrist placement for the vibrotactile alerts to be comfortable and suggested that dynamic vibration cues could further improve guidance from the alerts. Additionally, participants made more forward speed errors when landing at specific vertiports in the clockwise direction, which may have been due to the route characteristics that increased the difficulty of maintaining a consistent forward speed. These findings suggest that route design is a critical factor to consider when planning the approach paths for UAM operations, and could inform future tactile feedback design for enhancing pilot performance.

Keywords: Urban Air Mobility, Vibrotactile Feedback, Glideslope Trajectory, Tactile Cueing

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1007015

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