A Socio-Technical Simulation Model for the Design of the Future Single Pilot Cockpit: An Opportunity to Improve Pilot Performance

Abstract

The future deployment of single pilot operations must be supported by new cockpit computer services. Such services require an adaptive context-aware integration of technical functionalities with the concurrent tasks that a pilot must deal with. Advanced artificial intelligence supporting services and improved communication capabilities are the key enabling technologies that will render future cockpits more integrated with the present digitalized air traffic management system. However, an issue in the integration of such technologies is the lack of socio-technical analysis in the design of these teaming mechanisms. A key factor in determining how and when a service support should be provided is the dynamic evolution of pilot workload. This paper investigates how the socio-technical model-based systems engineering approach paves the way for the design of a digital assistant framework by formalizing this workload. The model was validated in an Airbus A-320 cockpit simulator, and the results confirmed the degraded pilot behavioral model and the performance impact according to different contextual flight deck information. This study contributes to practical knowledge for designing human-machine task-sharing systems.

From Single Aircraft to Communities: A Neutral Interpretation of Air Traffic Complexity Dynamics

“…In [11], a difference between weak emergent dynamics and strong emergent dynamics is introduced to differentiate between micro-level interactions among subsystems (weak) and emergence caused by irreducible macro causal mechanisms (strong). The authors of this paper accept that unpredictable decision-making processes carried out by a human actor (i.e., aircraft pilot or air traffic controller) justify the term strong emergent dynamics in ATM, which can be observed in several ATM socio-technical subsystems [12].…”

A Multidisciplinary Model to Quantify Human Uncertainty in Human-Centric Cyber-Physical-Social Systems: A 5G Application Use Case

“…Moreover, these methods need to be flexible and adaptable to the diversity of both people and scenarios that can be addressed. The characteristics needed by these methods are found in the research domain that integrates computer science with disciplines oriented to the study of human behavior, indicating the need for a multidisciplinary approach [13], [14].…”

Predicting pilot behavior during midair encounters using long short-term memory network

“…This approach uses Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT) to combine different goals that human pilot attempts to achieve in midair encounter, and the conflict resolution maneuver is selected by maximizing the utility. Recently, Piera et al 26 introduced a socio-technical modeling method for the design of single pilot cockpit. In this method, a knowledge-based pilot model is applied when unplanned events emerge.…”

“…In addition, even though it is able to build a comprehensive model using knowledge-based models as the one introduced in Ref. 26 It could be rather complex and time consuming, and its application in studying large system will be prohibited by the large computation cost. Therefore, this paper argues that a data-driven model can avoid this problem by directly learning the mechanism of pilot’s conflict resolution through data.…”