Human Factors Modeling Schemes for Pilot-Aircraft System: A Complex System Approach

The human factor is becoming a main topic in modeling and simulation, especially in airline safety as more aviation accidents are classified as pilot (human) errors. Traditional modeling schemes treat pilots and aircraft individually, assuming the other as given. However, to define a system-level architecture for the safety analysis, it is advantageous to expand the system boundary to include both pilots and aircraft as a coupled entity. In this paper, we propose a framework for pilot-aircraft system modeling scheme from a complex systems point of view. Key pilot factors are identified and quantified, and complex relationships and interaction among these factors are incorporated into usually well-modeled aircraft system. We also introduce a fast-time simulation model of man-aircraft-environment complex system with the human strategy model as its core to generate large sample sizes of flight data for this modeling purpose. The given results not only provide a proactive approach to the research of flying safety, it can also be applied to other complex dynamic systems.