Accession Number:

AD0672272

Title:

AN OPTIMAL CONTROL METHOD FOR PREDICTING CONTROL CHARACTERISTICS AND DISPLAY REQUIREMENTS OF MANNED-VEHICLE SYSTEMS.

Descriptive Note:

Final rept. 1 Jul 66-31 Aug 67,

Corporate Author:

BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN INC CAMBRIDGE MASS

Report Date:

1968-06-01

Pagination or Media Count:

173.0

Abstract:

An analytic procedure for determining information display requirements and human control and instrument monitoring characteristics for complex multivariable vehicular control systems is developed. The method is based upon the assumption that the human controller will act in a near optimal manner. Optimal control theory and its associated state-space representation is used as the basis for the analytic procedure. A model for the human controller is developed in which the controllers inherent limitations are approximated by a time delay. The model includes a predictor for compensating for this time delay, a controller for producing the control inputs to the vehicle and a cost functional that is to be minimimized. The controller is assumed to be optimal. Several suboptimal predictors are investigated. Only quadratic cost functionals are considered. The analytic procedure assumes that the human operators control characteristics can be represented by a set of gains operating on the delayed state variables of the system. These gains are predicted from the gains of optimal controller and from the characteristics of the predictor. It is further postulated that the information display requirements and instrument monitoring behavior can be determined from the sensitivity of the cost to changes in gain of the controller. Author

Subject Categories:

  • VSTOL
  • Human Factors Engineering and Man Machine Systems

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE