Correlation analysis of physiological parameters of pilot mental workload based on flight simulation

The mental workload of fighter pilots has always been a crucial issue in flight training and operations. However, measuring and calculating the mental workload is difficult due to various influencing factors. Previous studies mostly relied on questionnaires and lacked quantitative analysis. The relevance of some simple physiological representations has been questioned. Most current studies focus on measuring physiological parameters related to flight safety problems and determining the reliability of psychophysiological measurements. Due to the lack of a gradient setting of mental load, establishing a quantitative analysis model has proven to be challenging. In this paper, we present a novel approach to quantitatively analyze the mental workload of fighter pilots. We developed a flight simulator and set up two mission modes: ground target and air target, each with three levels of hitting difficulties. We measured the physiological parameters of the pilots during the experiment and established a quantitative analysis model by screening out the parameters with high correlation. Our results show a strong correlation between Electroencephalogram(EEG), Electrocardiogram(ECG), vision, and mental workload. We identified the relative power of theta band, ECG index, fixation rate, average fixation duration, and performance index as sensitive indicators of mental workload change. The mental workload regression representation model developed in this study performed well by screening corresponding sensitive indicators through significance analysis.