HOPE: An On-Line Piloted Handling Qualities Experiment Data Book

A novel on-line database for capturing most of the information obtained during piloted handling qualities experiments (either flight or simulated) is described. The Hyperlinked Overview of Piloted Evaluations (HOPE) web application is based on an open-source object- oriented Web-based front end (Ruby-on-Rails) that can be used with a variety of back-end relational database engines. The hyperlinked, on-line data book approach allows an easily- traversed way of looking at a variety of collected data, including pilot ratings, pilot information, vehicle and configuration characteristics, test maneuvers, and individual flight test cards and repeat runs. It allows for on-line retrieval of pilot comments, both audio and transcribed, as well as time history data retrieval and video playback. Pilot questionnaires are recorded as are pilot biographies. Simple statistics are calculated for each selected group of pilot ratings, allowing multiple ways to aggregate the data set (by pilot, by task, or by vehicle configuration, for example). Any number of per-run or per-task metrics can be captured in the database. The entire run metrics dataset can be downloaded in comma- separated text for further analysis off-line. It is expected that this tool will be made available upon request. I. Introduction novel on-line database, the Hyperlinked Overview of Piloted Evaluations (HOPE), has been developed for use in recent handling qualities simulation experiments for spacecraft operations. This web application was written to be generic in nature and can be applied to any experiment involving human subjects with both objective and subjective data collection. This paper describes the key features of the application and how it can be applied to a typical simulation experiment. HOPE was inspired by previous work in NASA's High Speed Research activity, one of the first team-based piloted evaluations that made use of emerging Web technologies to organize, store and share handling quality experimental data with a widely dispersed team of flight control engineers and pilots.