AEA Pilot's Guide 2023-2024 - 42

A DIGITAL CO-PILOT
Continued from page 41
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.
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
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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,
" 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-byturn
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
Continued on page 44...
AEA Pilot's Guide 2023-2024

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