Internship: Pilot HMI development at NARSIM Air Traffic Control Simulator

Internship: Pilot HMI development at NARSIM Air Traffic Control Simulator

Background

NARSIM is NLR’s Air-traffic control Realtime SIMulator. Research on Air-Traffic-Control (ATC) systems and ATC operations requires a platform capable of simulating the systems and working positions of air traffic controllers. To accurately emulate aircraft and pilot behaviour, such platform also requires working positions for so-called pseudo-pilots; operators responding to ATC instructions and controlling the aircraft.

Recently a new pseudo-pilot user-interface was developed. In addition to the legacy information screen with keyboard command inputs, the pilots can now also use a touch screen display. This new interface received positive reviews from pilots during several recent simulation campaigns. It significantly decreased required training time, reduced workload and increased pilot performance.

However, the interface is not yet finalized, with some essential information missing on the touch screen, causing pilots to search for vital data on the legacy display. Additional functionalities, such as drag-and-drop of flight strips, are also desired. Furthermore, certain aspects of the Human-Machine Interface (HMI) require redesign to improve usability and pilot interaction, enhancing the overall user experience.

Assignment

Contribute to the further development of the touchscreen HMI for the pseudo-pilots. This includes, amongst others:

• Identifying possible improvements in the current HMI and implementing the necessary changes;
• Adding missing flight information;
• Increasing interactivity: drag-and-drop labels, long-press events etc.;
• Improving code scalability and flexibility;
• More dynamic and contextual layout: too much information is displayed at the same time;
• Collecting feedback from pseudo-pilots.

Result

At the end of the internship you will have contributed to NARSIM’s codebase, and improved as well as expanded the functionalities of the touchscreen HMI for pseudo-pilots. Your work will be used in future NARSIM experiments.

Duration

3-6 months, starting any time.

Profile

• Student of Computer Science at HBO level, or similar;
• Basic knowledge of C (preferred) or C++;
• Nice to have: experience with Tcl/Tk (or Tkinter);
• Interested in Human-Machine interfaces;
• Assertive and self-motivated.

What we offer

• A challenging internship in a high-tech result orientated work environment;
• Weekly supervision and availability of the technical staff for support;
• An internship allowance;
• Internship results to be used in the current and future projects;
• Opportunity to contribute to the development of an advanced real-time Air Traffic Control simulator.

About NLR

Royal NLR has been the ambitious research organisation with the will to keep innovating for over 100 years. With that drive, we make the world of transportation safer, more sustainable, more efficient and more effective. We are on the threshold of breakthrough innovations. Plans and ideas start to move when these are fed with the right energy. Over 990 driven professionals work on research and innovation. From aircraft engineers to psychologists and from mathematicians to application experts.

A VOG screening is part of the interview process.