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The purpose of this project is to develop a realistic car-following algorithm that considers not only vehicle characteristics but also environmental and human factors. Data from real highways and from simulations are being analyzed and will be used as the basis for the algorithm. The algoirthm is to be used for future development of intelligent cruise controllers.
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Three levels of preview display are proposed as decision aids for the control of future high-speed trains. The first level provides speed limits, signal aspects, grades, and minimum stopping distance previewed for up to 20 kilometers ahead. The second level provides additional full-service and emergency braking curves, as well as the predicted speed profile for the current control level. The third level provides an additional optimal speed profile and corresponding control levels to advise the driver on producing the optimal control. These displays are experimentally compared with a basic display that shows only the conventional information in a cab. A human model will be developed to investigate the impact of smaller block length (much smaller than 2 kilometers) on system performance under the basic display and the first level of preview display.
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This research is directed toward development of a probabilistic model of complex human-machine systems which will allow identification of risk probability of failure events as a function of system state. The first application area is in surface transportation networks.
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It has long been recognized that flight-crew error is a major factor in most aviation accidents and incidents. As part of a program aimed at reducing the frequency of accidents in commercial aviation, NASA is interested in improving its understanding of the way in which decisions are made in the cockpit, and in using this knowledge to improve the design of displays, decision aids, and pilot-training procedures. In one experiment, experienced pilots were asked to plan an in-flight diversion by choosing between candidate alternate airports. The subjects utilities for the alternate airports are also ascertained as functions of several of the attributes of the airports. We have shown that the subjects choices can be predicted with considerable accuracy from their utility functions. A new computer-based experiment is currently being conducted in which the location of the alternates is specified, so that the route-planning performed by the pilots can be analyzed. It is expected that the pilots behavior will reflect a bias in favor of routes which terminate in a greater number of options. Several utility-based models of the desirability of keeping options open in this way are being considered.
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