Design characteristics to reduce inadvertent cross-axis coupling during side stick handling of aircraft pitch and roll axis control

Integrating a manual flight control inceptor with coupled axes such as the side stick within a flight deck creates challenges for the pilot to input a one-axis command without inadvertently inducing inputs in the opposite axis. The present paper studies three design features of the side stick and armrest setup believed to help reduce inadvertent cross-axis coupling occurrences. Design features address the aimed pilot population anthropometry (1.57m woman to 1.9m male) and their variability in upper segment measurements. Seven pilots of varying anthropometric sizes were asked to perform one-axis manoeuvres in pitch and roll for each setup configuration. To compare the setups both the duration and the definite integral of the unintended cross-axis input were processed and analyzed for each manoeuvre. Findings show that a short armrest reduces the occurrences of cross-axis input for the roll manoeuvre, whereas the side stick skew reduces inadvertent cross-axis coupling for the pitch manoeuvres.