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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2000

Evaluation of Helmet Mounted Display Alerting Symbology

Proposed helicopter helmet mounted displays will be used to alert the pilot to a variety of conditions, from threats to equipment problems. The present research was performed under the NASA Safe All-weather Flight Operations Research (SAFOR) program supported by a joint Army/NASA research agreement. The purpose of the research was to examine ways to optimize the alerting effectiveness of helmet display symbology. The research used two approaches to increasing the effectiveness of alerts. One was to increase the ability of the alert to attract attention by using the entire display surface. The other was to include information about the required response in the alert itself. The investigation was conducted using the NASA Ames Research Center's six-degree-of-freedom vertical motion simulator (VMS) with a rotorcraft cockpit. Helmet display symbology was based on the AH-64's pilot night vision system (PNVS), cruise mode symbology. A standardized mission was developed, that consisted of 11 legs. The mission included four tasks, which allowed variation in the frequency of alerts. The general trend in the data points to a small benefit from both the full-screen alert and the partial information alert.

DeMaio, Joe↗
NASA NTRS2008

Auditory alert systems with enhanced detectability

Methods and systems for distinguishing an auditory alert signal from a background of one or more non-alert signals. In a first embodiment, a prefix signal, associated with an existing alert signal, is provided that has a signal component in each of three or more selected frequency ranges, with each signal component in each of three or more selected level at least 3-10 dB above an estimated background (non-alert) level in that frequency range. The alert signal may be chirped within one or more frequency bands. In another embodiment, an alert signal moves, continuously or discontinuously, from one location to another over a short time interval, introducing a perceived spatial modulation or jitter. In another embodiment, a weighted sum of background signals adjacent to each ear is formed, and the weighted sum is delivered to each ear as a uniform background; a distinguishable alert signal is presented on top of this weighted sum signal at one ear, or distinguishable first and second alert signals are presented at two ears of a subject.

Begault, Durand R.↗
NASA NTRS2016

SC-228 Inclusion of DAA Warning Alert for TCAS Interoperability

This white paper summarizes NASA research results that have informed Special Committee 228 (SC-228) discussions and decisions regarding the inclusion of a warning-level alert within the detect and avoid (DAA) alerting structure for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). For UAS, the removal of the pilot from onboard the aircraft has eliminated the ability of the ground-based pilot in command (PIC) to use out-the-window visual information to make judgments about a potential threat of a loss of well clear with another aircraft. As a result, the DAA traffic display will be the primary source of information that the PIC can use to execute the three primary well clear functions: 1) detect a potential loss of well clear, 2) determine a resolution maneuver, and 3) upload that maneuver to the aircraft via the ground control station (GCS). In addition, pilots are required to coordinate with air traffic control (ATC) prior to maneuvering off of their approved flight plan. In determining an appropriate resolution maneuver to avoid a loss of well clear, the PIC must decide both when and how to maneuver, and both the timeliness and the accuracy (i.e., correctness) of the maneuver are critical to reducing the likelihood and/or severity of a loss of well clear. Alerting information is one of three critical components of the DAA display, along with traffic information elements (e.g., relative heading, speed and altitude) and maneuver guidance. Alerting information and maneuver guidance, in particular, have been found to have a significant impact, both statistically and practically, on pilots' ability to avoid and minimize the severity of losses of well clear While all three display components are key to pilots performing the traffic avoidance task of remaining well clear, in general, alerting information provides crucial information about when a resolution maneuver is required while maneuver guidance assists the pilot in determining how best to maneuver. A fundamental task of the DAA alerting system is to provide critical timing information to the pilot about the potential for a loss of well clear with another aircraft. This is done by employing both temporal and spatial thresholds that indicate to the pilot the likelihood and imminence of a loss of well clear. The design of the DAA alerting thresholds is a balancing act between eliciting the desired pilot response in real loss of well clear threat events and reducing excessive, unnecessary, and/or uncoordinated UAS maneuvering within the air traffic environment; larger thresholds, both spatially and temporally, may increase the likelihood of a pilot avoiding a loss of well clear, but it can also increase the frequency of maneuvering - especially in cases where a maneuver is not actually needed to maintain well clear. A series of human in the loop (HITL) simulations have been conducted as part of NASA's Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) project. The purpose of these HITLs has been to provide empirical results in order to inform development of the minimum human-machine interface requirements for the DAA system. This white paper will present those results which provide evidence of a human performance benefit (in terms of response times and ability to remain well clear of other aircraft) of the DAA warning alert both with and without a collision avoidance system on board the aircraft.

TCAS interoperability↗
NASA NTRS2017

Analysis of Alerting System Failures in Commercial Aviation Accidents

The role of an alerting system is to make the system operator (e.g., pilot) aware of an impending hazard or unsafe state so the hazard can be avoided or managed successfully. A review of 46 commercial aviation accidents (between 1998 and 2014) revealed that, in the vast majority of events, either the hazard was not alerted or relevant hazard alerting occurred but failed to aid the flight crew sufficiently. For this set of events, alerting system failures were placed in one of five phases: Detection, Understanding, Action Selection, Prioritization, and Execution. This study also reviewed the evolution of alerting system schemes in commercial aviation, which revealed naive assumptions about pilot reliability in monitoring flight path parameters; specifically, pilot monitoring was assumed to be more effective than it actually is. Examples are provided of the types of alerting system failures that have occurred, and recommendations are provided for alerting system improvements.

aviation accidents↗
NASA NTRS1993

Airborne derivation of microburst alerts from ground-based Terminal Doppler Weather Radar information: A flight evaluation

An element of the NASA/FAA windshear program is the integration of ground-based microburst information on the flight deck, to support airborne windshear alerting and microburst avoidance. NASA conducted a windshear flight test program in the summer of 1991 during which airborne processing of Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) data was used to derive microburst alerts. Microburst information was extracted from TDWR, transmitted to a NASA Boeing 737 in flight via data link, and processed to estimate the windshear hazard level (F-factor) that would be experienced by the aircraft in each microburst. The microburst location and F-factor were used to derive a situation display and alerts. The situation display was successfully used to maneuver the aircraft for microburst penetrations, during which atmospheric 'truth' measurements were made. A total of 19 penetrations were made of TDWR-reported microburst locations, resulting in 18 airborne microburst alerts from the TDWR data and two microburst alerts from the airborne reactive windshear detection system. The primary factors affecting alerting performance were spatial offset of the flight path from the region of strongest shear, differences in TDWR measurement altitude and airplane penetration altitude, and variations in microburst outflow profiles. Predicted and measured F-factors agreed well in penetrations near microburst cores. Although improvements in airborne and ground processing of the TDWR measurements would be required to support an airborne executive-level alerting protocol, the practicality of airborne utilization of TDWR data link data has been demonstrated.

Hinton, David A.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Generalized Philosophy of Alerting with Applications for Parallel Approach Collision Prevention

The goal of the research was to develop formal guidelines for the design of hazard avoidance systems. An alerting system is automation designed to reduce the likelihood of undesirable outcomes that are due to rare failures in a human-controlled system. It accomplishes this by monitoring the system, and issuing warning messages to the human operators when thought necessary to head off a problem. On examination of existing and recently proposed logics for alerting it appears that few commonly accepted principles guide the design process. Different logics intended to address the same hazards may take disparate forms and emphasize different aspects of performance, because each reflects the intuitive priorities of a different designer. Because performance must be satisfactory to all users of an alerting system (implying a universal meaning of acceptable performance) and not just one designer, a proposed logic often undergoes significant piecemeal modification before gamma general acceptance. This report is an initial attempt to clarify the common performance goals by which an alerting system is ultimately judged. A better understanding of these goals will hopefully allow designers to reach the final logic in a quicker, more direct and repeatable manner. As a case study, this report compares three alerting logics for collision prevention during independent approaches to parallel runways, and outlines a fourth alternative incorporating elements of the first three, but satisfying stated requirements. Three existing logics for parallel approach alerting are described. Each follows from different intuitive principles. The logics are presented as examples of three "philosophies" of alerting system design.

Winder, Lee F.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Factors Influencing Scanning for Alerts

Aircraft pilots (like operators in many domains) are required to monitor locations for rare events, while concurrently performing their everyday tasks. In many cases, the visual parameters of the alert are such that it is not visible unless directly fixated. For this reason, critical alerts should be designed to be visible in peripheral vision and/or augmented by an audio alarm. We use the term "conspicuity" to distinguish the attention-getting power of a visual stimulus from simple visibility in a single-task context. We have measured conspicuity in an experimental paradigm designed to test the N-SEEV model of attention and noticing (Steelman-Allen et al., HFES 2009). The subject performed a demanding central task while monitoring four peripheral locations for color change events. Visibility of the alerting stimuli was measured separately in a control experiment in which the subject maintained steady fixation without the central task. Thresholds in the dual-task experiments were lower than would be expected based on the results of the control experiment, due to the fact that the subjects actively sampled the alert locations with fixations while performing the central task. Locations of high-frequency alerts are generally sampled more often than locations of low-frequency alerts, and alert location sampling in general increases with practice, presumably because the demands of the central task are reduced.

Mulligan, Jeffrey B.↗
NASA NTRS2016

NAS-Wide Fast-Time Simulation Study for Evaluating Performance of UAS Detect-and-Avoid Alerting and Guidance Systems

This presentation contains the analysis results of NAS-wide fast-time simulations with UAS and VFR traffic for a single day for evaluating the performance of Detect-and-Avoid (DAA) alerting and guidance systems. This purpose of this study was to help refine and validate MOPS alerting and guidance requirements. In this study, we generated plots of all performance metrics that are specified by RTCA SC-228 Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS): 1) to evaluate the sensitivity of alerting parameters on the performance metrics of each DAA alert type: Preventive, Corrective, and Warning alerts and 2) to evaluate the effect of sensor uncertainty on DAA alerting and guidance performance.

DAA Alerting Performance↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Light Improves Alertness and Mood during the Sleep Inertial Period following Slow Wave Sleep

Introduction: Waking from sleep, especially slow wave sleep (SWS), is associated with reduced alertness known as sleep inertia. Light improves alertness during sleep deprivation and circadian misalignment. In this study, we assessed the efficacy of light to improve alertness and mood immediately after waking from SWS. Methods: Twelve participants kept a sleep schedule of 8.5 h for 5 nights and 5 h for one night prior to the overnight laboratory visit (confirmed by actigraphy). Participants went to bed at their scheduled habitual bedtime in the laboratory and were monitored by standard polysomnography. After at least 5 min of SWS, participants were awoken and exposed to either red ambient light (control) or blue-enriched bright light (light) for 1 h. During this time, participants completed a subjective scale of alertness (Karolinska Sleepiness Scale, KSS) and visual analogue scales (VAS) of mood at 2 min, 17 min, 32 min, and 47 min after waking. Following this sleep inertia measurement period, all lights were turned off and participants were allowed to return to sleep. They were then awoken again from their subsequent SWS period and exposed to the opposite condition (control or light). A linear mixed-effects model with fixed effects of condition, time, and condition*time and a random effect of participant was used to determine the impact of light across the testing period. An average of baseline responses (pre-sleep) was included as a covariate. Results: Compared to the control condition, participants exposed to bright blue-enriched light reported feeling more alert (KSS: F1,77=4.955, p=.029; VASalert: F1,77=8.226, p=.005), more cheerful (VAScheerful: F1,77=8.615, p=.004), less depressed (VASdepressed: F1,77=4.649, p=.034), and less lethargic (VASlethargic: F1,77=5.652, p=.020). Discussion: Exposure to blue-enriched bright light immediately after waking from SWS may help to improve subjective alertness and mood. Future analyses will explore whether these findings extend to effects on cognitive performance.

alertness↗
NASA NTRS2006

Education and Training Module in Alertness Management

The education and training module (ETM) in alertness management has now been integrated as part of the training regimen of the Pilot Proficiency Awards Program ("WINGS") of the Federal Aviation Administration. Originated and now maintained current by the Fatigue Countermeasures Group at NASA Ames Research Center, the ETM in Alertness Management is designed to give pilots the benefit of the best and most recent research on the basics of sleep physiology, the causes of fatigue, and strategies for managing alertness during flight operations. The WINGS program is an incentive program that encourages pilots at all licensing levels to participate in recurrent training, upon completion of which distinctive lapel or tie pins (wings) and certificates of completion are awarded. In addition to flight training, all WINGS applicants must attend at least one FAA-sponsored safety seminar, FAA-sanctioned safety seminar, or industry recurrent training program. The Fatigue Countermeasures Group provides an FAA-approved industry recurrent training program through an on-line General Aviation (GA) WINGS ETM in alertness management to satisfy this requirement. Since 1993, the Fatigue Countermeasures Group has translated fatigue and alertness information to operational environments by conducting two-day ETM workshops oriented primarily toward air-carrier operations subject to Part 121 of the Federal Aviation Regulations pertaining to such operations. On the basis of the information presented in the two-day ETM workshops, an ETM was created for GA pilots and was transferred to a Web-based version. To comply with the requirements of the WINGS Program, the original Web-based version has been modified to include hypertext markup language (HTML) content that makes information easily accessible, in-depth testing of alertness-management knowledge, new interactive features, and increased informational resources for GA pilots. Upon successful completion of this training module, a participant receives a computer- screen display of a certificate of completion. The certificate, which includes the pilot s name and an identifying number, can be printed out and submitted, for ground training credit, with the pilot s WINGS application.

Mallis, M. M.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Modeling Pilot State in Next Generation Aircraft Alert Systems

The Next Generation Air Transportation System will introduce new, advanced sensor technologies into the cockpit that must convey a large number of potentially complex alerts. Our work focuses on the challenges associated with prioritizing aircraft sensor alerts in a quick and efficient manner, essentially determining when and how to alert the pilot This "alert decision" becomes very difficult in NextGen due to the following challenges: 1) the increasing number of potential hazards, 2) the uncertainty associated with the state of potential hazards as well as pilot slate , and 3) the limited time to make safely-critical decisions. In this paper, we focus on pilot state and present a model for anticipating duration and quality of pilot behavior, for use in a larger system which issues aircraft alerts. We estimate pilot workload, which we model as being dependent on factors including mental effort, task demands. and task performance. We perform a mathematically rigorous analysis of the model and resulting alerting plans. We simulate the model in software and present simulated results with respect to manipulation of the pilot measures.

Carlin, Alan S.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Utility of Visual and Auditory Warning Alerting for Traffic Avoidance During UAS Operations

This presentation covers the results of a human-in-the-loop simulation that examined the effect of caution versus warning-level alerting in the context of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) operations in civil airspace. Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) are currently being developed by RTCA Special Committee 228 for UAS Detect-and-Avoid (DAA) systems. Input from subject matter experts and multiple research studies have informed display requirements for DAA systems aimed at supporting timely and appropriate pilot responses to collision hazards. DAA alerting is designed to inform pilots of potential threats to DAA "well clear"; the two highest alert levels - caution and warning - indicate how soon pilot action is required and whether there is adequate time to coordinate with the air traffic controller (ATC). Additional empirical support is needed to clarify the extent to which warning-level alerting impacts DAA task performance. The present study explores the differential effects of the auditory and visual cues provided by the DAA Warning alert, and performance implications compared to caution-only alerting are discussed.

detect and avoid↗
NASA NTRS2020

Evaluation of Low Cost, User-Centered Alerting Devices for the Mitigation of Flight Crew Spatial Disorientation

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is conducting research into technologies which have the potential to reduce flight crew Spatial Disorientation (SD). While flight deck technology has advanced rapidly over the past fifty (50) years, the reported occurrences of flight crew SD have not decreased. The Cost-Effective Devices for Alerting Research (CEDAR) effort has focused on the identification and development of low cost, user-centered alerting solutions for the purpose of mitigating the occurrence of flight crew SD. This effort seeks to evaluate both existing technologies as well as new and emerging technologies which have a viable path to implementation in commercial aviation within the next five (5) years. This research is intended to develop a proof-of-concept for real-time SD mitigation which could eventually be utilized to improve safety in future air transport operations. NASA has partnered with the United States Naval Aeromedical Research Unit in Dayton, OH (NAMRU-D) to conduct flight crew SD research utilizing their Disorientation Research Device (DRD), dubbed “The Kraken”. This high-tech simulator features never-before-seen capabilities for side-by-side commercial aviation flight crew SD research, and is capable of re-creating the forces necessary to induce SD illusions in a safe and repeatable manner. Prototype SD mitigation solutions were incorporated into this simulator for scenario-based testing and evaluation using airline pilots within a contextually representative operational environment. SD mitigation technology prototypes designed to provide haptic feedback for both alerting and guidance, as well as innovative visual and aural alerting displays were evaluated. In December 2014, as a result of analyzing eighteen (18) loss-of-control events, the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) recommended research into flight deck technologies that have potential to mitigate the problems and contributing factors that lead to flight crew loss of airplane state awareness (ASA) and conditions likely to produce SD. The aviation community (government, industry and academia) have been charged with conducting research into cost-effective, user-centered flight deck alerting systems to alert flight crews; especially for the two conditions that produced SD (sub-threshold rolls and the somatogravic illusion). Somatogravic illusions are defined as illusions in which “there is a false perception of attitude on exposure to a force vector that differs in direction and/or magnitude from the normal gravitational force”. The sub-threshold roll illusion (aka the “leans” illusion) is a false sensation of roll attitude. A prolonged roll of less than two degrees becomes physiologically imperceptible to the pilot, and can lead to an incorrect perception of aircraft orientation. The sub-threshold roll illusion forms the entry point for the “graveyard spiral”, a maneuver in which the pilot’s corrective action (based on their false perception of aircraft orientation) causes the aircraft to spiral down into the ground. In both of these SD illusions, it is when the pilot attempts to correct the aircraft’s attitude (based on a false perception of its state) that problems arise, sometimes with lethal consequences.

Ronald J Daiker↗
DOE OSTI2025

Natural Hazard Forecast Alert Grid Risk System

Weather events cause most power outages. Often, we even get notifications on our phones to take cover or be prepared for an imminent event. If electric grid utilities had a similar warning that also included probable scenarios and the equipment involved, they could prepare and minimize the effects. Idaho National Laboratory had a project with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response program to develop a grid alert application that receives messages from the existing emergency alert system, filters and determines components possibly affected by the emergency event, calculates probable scenarios using MASTERRI (Modeling And Simulation for Targeted Reliability and Resilience Improvement). For high-risk events, the application can then send alert links to subscribed electric distribution utility operations staff to allow them to see and evaluate the scenarios and the impact in a web based interactive map tool. This proof of concept application used data from utilities and organizations, such as the international regulatory body North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which have complied historical failure data of elements that comprise the U.S. electric grid. Nominal failure rates are obtained from this data. To make this tool possible, estimated failure rates were calculated for different component types given the alert type, severity, and location. Historic weather-related grid element failures were correlated with historic weather events from the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System. These correlated events and failures are used along with Bayesian updates from the historical norms to provide a modified failure rate for grid elements in the alert areas and calculate probable scenarios. Working with an industry collaborator, actual grid models and data were used for demonstration cases. This report outlines the work performed for this project.

24 - POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Alerga: Alert Aggregation and Reasoning in GOOSE Simulation Pipeline

IEC 61850 specifies the Generic Object Oriented Substation Event (GOOSE) protocol as one option for low latency communication of substation-related events. Due to its strict timing requirements, GOOSE lacks any form of encryption or authentication and has only minimal integrity guarantees. These absences render the protocol vulnerable to a variety of communication anomalies, including adversarial action. In particular, an adversary with access to the substation network can launch man in the middle (MITM) attacks. We propose Alerga, a set of tools to allow operators to mitigate some of the risks of the protocol while retaining its strengths. To that end, we have developed first a GOOSE simulation pipeline including data generation, anomaly detection, alert handling, causal reasoning and data visualization components. The simulator is designed to be modular, allowing operators to swap components to better fit their network capabilities. The volume of alert traffic on a substation network threatens operators with alert fatigue. In order to combat this, we secondly present a novel form of alert aggregation and processing, offering operators a condensed view of any threats to the system. Thirdly, to facilitate the handling of these threats, our causal reasoning system traces the alerts back to their most likely cause, generating an initial hypothesis for operators to investigate.

alert aggregation↗
NASA NTRS2018

Warning Alert HITL Experiment Results

Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) are being developed to support the integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Airspace (NAS). Input from subject matter experts and multiple research studies have informed display requirements for Detect-and-Avoid (DAA) systems aimed at supporting timely and appropriate pilot responses to collision hazards. Phase 1 DAA MOPS alerting is designed to inform pilots if an avoidance maneuver is necessary; the two highest alert levels - caution and warning - indicate how soon pilot action is required and whether there is adequate time to coordinate with the air traffic controller (ATC). Additional empirical support is needed to clarify the extent to which warning-level alerting impacts DAA task performance. The present study explores the differential effects of the auditory and visual cues provided by the DAA Warning alert, and performance implications compared to caution-only alerting are discussed.

alerting↗
DOE OSTI2020

Integrated Model of Models for Global Flood Alerting

A dramatic increase in frequency of minor to major flooding since 2000 has caused significant economic losses across the world. To mitigate and recover from these losses, actions have been taken to build resilient communities and infrastructures, specifically, by providing situational awareness in near real-time about flood impacts to enhance response and recovery efforts. Several hydrologic and hydraulic flood models are available at various spatial and temporal resolutions to forecast flood events at regional to global scale. Given the global coverage of two operational flood models – GloFAS (Global Flood Awareness System) and GFMS (Global Flood Monitoring System), the purpose of this project is to implement a Model of Models (MoM) approach to integrate the outputs from these two models to classify flood severity at watershed level worldwide, and send alerts based on severity similar to the USGS PAGER (used for severity alerting and impact analysis for earthquakes) to flood impacted communities. The alerts containing flood impacts and severity information will be disseminated through the DisasterAWARE platform, operated by the Pacific Disaster Center (PDC), that provides global multi-hazard alerting and Situational Awareness information to the emergency management community and public. The current version of the MoM approach was implemented for a case study flood event that occurred during January and February of 2020 in South and Central Africa. The findings of the case study event reveal that the approach is effective in identifying potential flood impact areas and the spatio-temporal variation of flood severity, flood depth and extent at watershed level, which will be used to assess infrastructure and societal impacts using earth-observation data and for alerting.

Kar, Bandana↗
DOE OSTI2023

Constraints on Populations of Neutrino Sources from Searches in the Directions of IceCube Neutrino Alerts

Beginning in 2016, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory has sent out alerts in real time containing the information of high-energy ($E$ ≳ 100 TeV) neutrino candidate events with moderate to high (≳30%) probability of astrophysical origin. In this work, we use a recent catalog of such alert events, which, in addition to events announced in real time, includes events that were identified retroactively and covers the time period of 2011–2020. We also search for additional, lower-energy neutrinos from the arrival directions of these IceCube alerts. We show how performing such an analysis can constrain the contribution of rare populations of cosmic neutrino sources to the diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux. After searching for neutrino emission coincident with these alert events on various timescales, we find no significant evidence of either minute-scale or day-scale transient neutrino emission or of steady neutrino emission in the direction of these alert events. This study also shows how numerous a population of neutrino sources has to be to account for the complete astrophysical neutrino flux. Assuming that sources have the same luminosity, an $E$ -2.5 neutrino spectrum, and number densities that follow star formation rates, the population of sources has to be more numerous than 7 × 10 -9 Mpc -3 . This number changes to 3 × 10 -7 Mpc -3 if number densities instead have no cosmic evolution.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗