Attitude symbology for helmet-mounted displays: Lessons learned

This paper will review recent research on attitude symbology on helmet-mounted displays (HMDs) for the air-to-ground mission. General issues concerned with HMDs will be discussed and the lessons learned during the research will be outlined. It is suggested that a sound developmental approach to HMD symbology is critical since such symbology will constantly follow the pilot's line of sight (LOS). Further, the HMD field-of-view (FOV) is likely to be limited. Hence, if HMDs are to be used operationally for more than weapon aiming a number of human factors issues need to be investigated, such as the optimal method of presenting attitude information. The pitch ladder was designed to be presented along the boresight, directly in the pilot's LOS, at a fixed frame of reference. As pilots are used to and have been trained upon attitude information presented in consistency with the forward LOS, information representative of the pitch ladder may be beneficial on HMDs. None the less, since the pitch ladder was not designed for the HMD, novel formats may be more appropriate. As with all novel attitude symbology, enhanced operational performance must always be demonstrated and substantiated against the conventional existing symbology. Several experiments will be described which compared the pitch ladder to novel symbology, namely: the cylinder display; the are segmented attitude reference display (ASAR); and the modified roll-pitch display. These experiments were conducted using a variety of operationally relevant mission tasks and scenarios. The results will be summarised and the lessons learned for prototyping attitude symbology on HMDs will be discussed.