The ATLAS Lab was founded in 2018 by Dr. Meredith Carroll to study and develop solutions to optimize human performance, cognition, and learning in aviation systems and beyond. Through systematic and applied research methods, the ATLAS Lab studies how humans process information; effectively team with machine and human counterparts; develop knowledge, skills and expertise; and the human factors which influence these processes in a range of complex systems.
The ATLAS Lab also evaluates current technology solutions to make recommendations for streamlining human performance and designs unique training and education tools grounded in human factors, and cognition and learning theory. The ATLAS Lab conducts research in a range of domains both within and outside of aviation, including commercial, military and general aviation; unmanned aircraft systems (UAS); urban/advanced air mobility (U/AAM), aviation maintenance; air traffic control; a range of military operations; and complex systems, in general.
Current Focus Areas:
Human-Autonomy Teaming. Research projects include investigating the development and maintenance of human trust in autonomous agent teams, including the impact of trust violations and repair strategies in a multi-agent HAT, how trust spills over between multiple agent teammates, and how trust can be captured with real-time and unobtrusive measures. Research efforts also currently include designing and evaluating ground control station design concepts to allow an operator to manage multiple autonomous aircraft in an Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) concept of operations.
Urban/Advanced Air Mobility. Research projects are investigating pilot interfaces and training implications for the next generation of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft to support air taxi and air cargo operations. Current research is focused on evaluating prototype display designs for eVTOL battery information displays, exploring the use of virtual reality technology to enhance pilot training, and examining the impact of levels of automation (e.g., human pilot monitoring and making decisions vs. totally autonomous vehicle) on operator situation awareness and decision making for future eVTOL operations.
Learning and Expertise Development. Current research is investigating the training effectiveness of adaptive training strategies that adapt flight simulator scenario difficulty based on performance and/or mental effort. Recent research also examined instructional strategies to engage and educate under represented minorities (women and minorities) in the field of cybersecurity, including development, implementation, and empirical evaluation of a pilot training curriculum for local high schools.
Cognition and Decision Making. Recent research efforts have examined pilot decision making in complex dynamic systems, including the impacts of stress and uncertainty, such as when conflicting information is encountered on the flight deck.
Human Performance and Individual Difference. Recent research has examined the impact of various individual difference factors such as personality type, motivation, cognitive ability, and resilience to stress on human performance and learning.
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