Avionics News June 2023 - 60

A DIGITAL CO-PILOT FOR GENERAL AVIATION
Continued from page 59
The TIS-B portion of ADS-B In provides METARs
and TAFs and a radar picture and other sources of
weather information to the digital co-pilot function. This
allows the digital co-pilot to form a strategic picture of
the weather for the pilot but not to provide guidance on
tactical decisions.
The conclusion communicated to the pilot may be that
weather conditions are deteriorating along the planned
route of flight with reduced visibility or increasing cloud
cover. It may be time for the pilot to produce a backup
plan for an alternative route of flight. If a VFR pilot
stumbles into IMC conditions, the system will alert him
if a slow roll begins that he has not noticed.
NOTAM studies have shown that there may be 100
NOTAMs at Chicago's Midway airport. Many may list
minor details, while one that is critically important, but
easy to miss, may specify that a runway under repair
is closed. Having a digital co-pilot notify a pilot on
approach that a runway is closed could be a lifesaver.
The aim of the MITRE-developed digital co-pilot
algorithms is not to dictate pilot actions such as
command a go-around when the data doesn't look
right. Instead, the system tells the pilot about useful
information with audio and visual notifications based on
the context of what the pilot is trying to accomplish.
The technology, similar to artificial intelligence
aids such as expert systems, uses automatic speech
recognition, intent inference and a set of assistance
algorithms. " We can't be prescriptive on what the device
is telling the pilot, " Pollack said. " It will never be a
system like TCAS that will tell the pilot what to do; it
can only provide information. " MITRE is also exploring
the possibility of adding tactile feedback to alert pilots to
useful information.
The algorithms don't link up to the autopilot or any
control system to take over but simply point out the
pilot may be lining up to take off on the wrong runway
or on a taxiway. " The system knows the pilot has set in
a destination airport, and if it looks like the aircraft is
setting up to land on a different airport, it will notify the
pilot, " Pollack said.
The digital co-pilot features perform cognitive
assistance, which is similar outside of aviation to what
Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa do. In a technical
paper on cognitive assistance, Pollack and his MITRE
colleagues Steven Estes and John Helleberg state,
60 avionics news * june 2023
" Cognitive assistance is cooperative automation
designed to augment human cognition rather than
replacing it. It benefits the pilot by reducing workload
and task time, by providing a memory aid and by
supporting decision-making. "
The paper titled " Cognitive Assistance for
Recreational Pilots " by the MITRE team can be found
with a Google search.
There are three types of assistance cues for pilots:
on-demand information, contextual notifications and
a hybrid type that combines the first two (essentially
reminders). On-demand information can be requested
by the pilot such as " say pattern altitude at destination "
without having the pilot look for the altitude figure in a
chart or an EFB. The need for information can be picked
up with speech recognition of a pilot's readback on a
taxi clearance, " Runway 30 taxi via Foxtrot, Delta, Delta
One Skyhawk 8305B. " By hearing these instructions, the
digital co-pilot can provide turn-by-turn directions.
" Each of these types of cognitive assistance are
intended to benefit the pilot in some way - for example,
by reducing workload, reducing task time or increasing
awareness and head-up time, " Pollack and his colleagues
wrote. " We find that those benefits are largely enabled
by three cognitive mechanisms: cognitive offloading,
task reallocation and attentional capture. " The digital
co-pilot can draw the pilot's attention to important
information or raise awareness about the aircraft's
situation.
This provides not only a huge safety benefit but also
allows the pilot to avoid a major mistake that could lead
to an FAA sanction. " There are plenty of examples of
general aviation pilots calling the wrong airport tower or
in cases with serious consequences landing on the wrong
runway or on a taxiway or taking off on the wrong
runway or a taxiway, " Pollack said. Serious accidents
can occur as a result.
But for single-pilot operation of general aviation
aircraft, and particularly in complex turbine-powered
aircraft, the safety benefits are obvious and have been
confirmed by MITRE studies.
In a 2018 technical paper, MITRE assessed pilot
workload and analyzed human reliability to quantify
pilot error probabilities and accident sequence
frequencies. By modeling pilot performance with
and without the use of the digital co-pilot, MITRE
researchers concluded the technology they developed
" has the potential to significantly reduce the rates of
fatal and total accidents in general aviation. "
Avionics News June 2023

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