Conference article

As our knowledge in aeronautics has improved, so have aircraft. Modern flight control systems can use electronic systems to greatly enhance the controllability, efficiency and safety of even aerodynamically unstable aircraft, however the man-machine interface method has remained the same since the early days; sticks and pedals.This paper depicts the very first simulated test flights on a prototype flight control interface for manned aircraft under development, this interface uses the pilot’s eye focus direction (known as “gaze”) and hand movements to control the aircraft in flight by just looking into a desired direction, or by having the aircraft to “imitate” her or his hand like one would do to illustrate an aircraft flight maneuver: an open hand with thumb and pinky finger extended like “wings” to imitate an aircraft motion in flight, except that this time is the other way around, with the aircraft following the hand rolls and climbs as actual commands. Although Gaze-guided and Hand gesture-guided flight control has been proven feasible using this system, only the initial operative experience is covered, with a general overview on the systems functionality and of data collected, this exploratory research does not intends to result in a immediately-applicable system, rather as proof of concept of the interface method of the proposed system and as foundation for further development.

flight controls, eye tracking, body tracking, control systems