Human-Automation Teaming: Lessons Learned and Future Directions

Abstract

Full autonomy seems to be the goal for system developers in almost every area of the economy. However, as we move from automated systems to autonomous systems, designers have needed to insert humans to oversee automation that has traditionally been brittle or incomplete. This creates its own problems as the operator is usually out of the loop when the automation hands over problems that it cannot handle. To better handle these situations, it has been proposed that we develop human automation teams that have shared goals and objectives to support task performance. This paper first summarizes a body of research to develop ground station automation support for single pilot transport operations. Then the paper will describe an initial model of Human Automation Teaming (HAT) which has three elements: transparency, bidirectional communications, and human-directed execution. Transparency in our model is a method for giving insight into the reasoning behind automated recommendations and actions, bi-directional communication allows the operator to communicate directly with the automation, and finally the automation defers execution to the human. The model was implemented through a number of features on an electronic flight bag (EFB) which are described in the paper. The EFB was installed in a mid-fidelity flight simulator and used by 12 airline pilots to support diversion decisions during off-nominal flight scenarios. Pilots reported that working with the HAT automation made diversion decisions easier and reduced their workload. They also reported that the information provided about diversion airports was similar to what they would receive from ground dispatch, thus making coordination with dispatch easier and less time consuming. These HAT features engender more trust in the automation when appropriate, and less when not, allowing improved supervision of automated functions by flight crews.

Understanding the Utility of Digital Flight Assistants: A Preliminary Analysis

“…Pilots expressed particularly high willingness to fly with DFAs in the setting of a single-pilot operation, which is similar to findings by Battiste et al [4]. Furthermore, the pilots highlighted that, to be successful, a DFA should be able not only to provide a practical support, but also to read the relational context of the cockpit.…”

“…Ethics approval was obtained from the university's human research ethics committee 4 . The study was classified as low risk.…”

“…https://www.iata.org/contentassets/bccae1c5a24e43759607a5fd8f44770b/vision-2050.pdf4 Pseudonyms are used in this paper to preserve anonymity.…”

Evaluating the reduced flight deck crew concept using cognitive work analysis and social network analysis: comparing normal and data-link outage scenarios

“…This includes other initial research approaches and current advances in automation. Various studies have already evaluated automation tools for RCO empirically concluding such operations including ground support are viable in near future (Battiste et al 2018;Lachter et al 2017;. Other proposals have validated advanced automation tools for MCO, which autonomously monitor and evaluate pilot health as well as hazardous of entries into aircraft (Çakır et al 2016;Gateau et al 2018;Gaultier and SAFEE Consortium 2008;Hanakova et al 2017;Laviv and Speijker 2007;Maiolo et al 2017;Oliveira et al 2012;Schmitt et al 2010).…”

Single Pilot Operations in Domestic Commercial Aviation

“…and through direct interactions with the onboard pilot. Based on these findings, Battiste et al (2018) suggested that the decision of how dedicated assistance should be provided could be left to air carriers based on their analyses of cost-benefit ratios.…”