Avionics News June 2023 - 59

M
ITRE, a multi-faceted research and
development organization, is creating
algorithms under contract to the Federal
Aviation Administration to enable a digital co-pilot on
mobile devices in general aviation cockpits. This longterm
R&D project that began in 2015 is continuing
with new algorithms being developed to assist pilots in
handling additional tasks in the cockpit.
" What the FAA asked us to do is to
provide assistance to pilots in a portable
tablet type device, not necessarily on
installed avionics, " said Matthew Pollack,
a software engineer at The MITRE
Corporation. The tablet is a non-installed,
uncertified piece of equipment. Pollack
is part of a team at MITRE working on
this project for the FAA. Some members
of the team are general aviation pilots,
and Pollack is also an active commercial
multi-engine pilot and a CFII (certified
flight instructor-instrument).
The team asked itself how a pilot would
interact with a digital co-pilot to reduce
workload and increase safety without any
unintended consequences. The project
started out as a response to the work
of the General Aviation Joint Steering
Committee. The MITRE team then
suggested the digital co-pilot project to
the FAA Office of Accident Investigation
and Prevention. AVP supported the
project, and exploratory work began to
see what could be done.
The MITRE team talked to the FAA and
safety experts in brainstorming sessions
so they could develop an algorithm that
would address one of these issues. The
first feature developed was a notification that the runway
being approached is closed. This function requires data
to be gathered and inferences to be made. Software
engineers also had to develop phase-of-flight algorithms.
The FAA-backed project began fortuitously just as
mobile devices became ubiquitous and started to be used
in the cockpit and as electronic flight bags emerged on
"
MITRE
RESEARCHERS
HAVE ASSISTED
COMPANIES WITH
DIGITAL CO-PILOT
APPLICATIONS IN
MOBILE DEVICES
FOR COCKPIT
USE. THEY HAVE
ALSO TALKED
TO COMPANIES
MAKING PANELMOUNTED
AVIONICS
SYSTEMS, AND
DIGITAL CO-PILOT
FEATURES MAY
FIND THEIR WAY
INTO PANELMOUNTED
EQUIPMENT
EVENTUALLY. "
the
scene. MITRE researchers have assisted companies
with digital co-pilot applications in mobile devices
for cockpit use. They have also talked to companies
making panel-mounted avionics systems, and digital
co-pilot features may find their way into panel-mounted
equipment eventually. Pollack said MITRE invites the
attention of any companies, including makers of EFBs,
that may be interested in the digital cockpit
software the organization has developed.
A quick concept demonstration showed
the value of the idea, and R&D work
continued. A Cessna 172 was used to
flight test the first algorithm in 2017; so
far, there have been about 50 hours of
flight testing over the past five years in
light fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.
Geolocation, flight plan, weather and
other air traffic data is fed into the tablet
to provide information on the aircraft's
situation, including high-accuracy GPS,
AHRS and ADS-B. High-quality data
is not required, but if it is available,
including information on weather,
TIS-B traffic and FIS-B, NOTAMs and
PIREPs, this leads to higher-quality
outputs for cognitive assistance. EFBs
like those provided by Garmin offer this
type of data to pilots but lack the speech
recognition and context provided by the
algorithms developed by MITRE with
FAA funding.
MITRE does not produce any products
for markets such as general aviation.
The FAA-funded digital co-pilot R&D
explored the concepts of use and
developed algorithms that can be offered
to industry under government tech
transfer arrangements. It is also possible, for example, for
companies to license the algorithms to use in their own
existing or new products. ForeFlight began incorporating
some digital co-pilot features in the company's software
in 2018.
Continued on following page
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59
Avionics News June 2023

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