Pilot Model for Carrier Landing Task Incorporating Predictive Actions and Control Constraints

Based on the assumptions of optimality and predictive control methods, a pilot model incorporating constraints and predictions was developed to address the complex task of describing pilot control behavior in the carrier landing task with constraints and nonlinear bifurcations. In the carrier landing task, pilots are required to control three variables (longitudinal, lateral, and angle of attack) and are tasked with avoiding control overshoots, necessitating pilots to integrate overall flight trends to accomplish the control task. Anticipation, which involves the use of future information combined with judgments about flight trends, is a core capability reflecting the skill level of the pilot. This study demonstrates the equivalence between the unconstrained predictive pilot model and the LQR pilot model and extends the unconstrained predictive model to a constrained predictive pilot model. The constrained predictive pilot model has structural advantages in explicitly handling constraints and can address the description problems of nonlinear behaviors caused by dynamic systems through a combination of local linearization and rolling optimization algorithms. Through simulation, this paper compares the landing performance of pilots under different predictive horizons and input constraints; pilots with lower predictive capabilities adopt conservative input strategies, resulting in higher landing success rates, while those with stronger anticipatory abilities can use aggressive strategies to reduce the mean deviation of landing points. The TFR (time‐frequency representation) method was used to estimate the pilot workload in this task based on the frequency components and power frequency of the pilot′s historical inputs. Simulation results show that the frequency components of pilot inputs in high sea state landing tasks are close to HQR Level 2, and compared to low sea states, the stick input workload of pilots in high sea conditions is the highest, nearly double that of low sea conditions.