Report of the Second Piloted Aircraft Flight Control System - Acgsc.org

Figure 1.
anticipation of the target's motion is limited by the narrow field of view
as well as by the conditions generating the motion, such as evasive maneuvers
and unforeseen random dls turbances due to gust6 . It can be seen f'rom the
foregoing examples that any study of human responses must carefully consider
the nature of the visual Input because of thia anticipation characteristic
of the operator.
Another well-Imom characteristic of the human operator is the ability
to adjust to and compeneate for specific tracking problems and specific
equipment. For example the operator is able to adjust his response to take
into account friction, different control ratios and other aspects of 'the
equipment. Similarly the operator is able to adjust his response with regard
to instructions such as "track accurately,""track rapidlyn or in the case of
aircraft flight to meintain a smooth course through a series of gusts instead
of attempting to compensate for each one. In addition the operator's behavior
is capable of changing as a function of bxperience and training in any particular
tracking task.
The foregoing characteristice point up the difficulties in attempting to
arrive at a linear, time invarlnt, description of human operator behavior.
In addition 'this non-linear nature of the human operator makes any character-