Paul C. Schutte

An evaluation of a real-time fault diagnosis expert system for aircraft applications

Several aspects of the aircraft domain make inflight diagnosis difficult. Many stem from the fact that the aircraft is in operation during and after the occurrence of a fault. These aspects include failure propagation, operator compensation, and lack of complete information. Still other aspects include responding rapidly to a failure, recognizing multiple failures, and predicting the effect of the failure on the aircraft. To address these concerns, a fault monitoring and diagnosis expert system called Faultfinder was conceived and developed to detect and diagnose inflight failures in an aircraft. Faultfinder is an automated intelligent aid whose purpose is to assist the flight crew in fault monitoring, fault diagnosis, and recovery planning. The present implementation of this concept performs monitoring and diagnosis for a generic aircrafts propulsion and hydraulic subsystems. This implementation is capable of detecting and diagnosing failures of known and unknown (i.e., unforeseeable) type in a real-time environment. Faultfinder uses both rule-based and model-based reasoning strategies which operate on causal, temporal, and qualitative information. This paper describes a preliminary evaluation of the diagnostic concepts implemented in Faultfinder. The evaluation used actual aircraft accident and incident cases which were simulated to assess the effectiveness of Faultfinder in detecting and diagnosing failures. Results of this evaluation, together with the description of the current Faultfinder implementation, are presented.

Conceptual framework for single pilot operations

Single pilot operations (SPO) refers to flying a commercial aircraft with only one pilot in the cockpit, assisted by advanced onboard automation and/or ground operators providing piloting support services. Properly implemented, SPO could provide operating cost savings while maintaining a level of safety no less than conventional two-pilot commercial operations. A concept of operations (ConOps) for any paradigm describes the characteristics of its various components and their integration in a multidimensional design space. This paper presents key options for human/automation function allocation being considered by NASA in its ongoing development of a SPO ConOps.

Haptic-Multimodal Flight Control System Update

The rapidly advancing capabilities of autonomous aircraft suggest a future where many of the responsibilities of today s pilot transition to the vehicle, transforming the pilot s job into something akin to driving a car or simply being a passenger. Notionally, this transition will reduce the specialized skills, training, and attention required of the human user while improving safety and performance. However, our experience with highly automated aircraft highlights many challenges to this transition including: lack of automation resilience; adverse human-automation interaction under stress; and the difficulty of developing certification standards and methods of compliance for complex systems performing critical functions traditionally performed by the pilot (e.g., sense and avoid vs. see and avoid). Recognizing these opportunities and realities, researchers at NASA Langley are developing a haptic-multimodal flight control (HFC) system concept that can serve as a bridge between today s state of the art aircraft that are highly automated but have little autonomy and can only be operated safely by highly trained experts (i.e., pilots) to a future in which non-experts (e.g., drivers) can safely and reliably use autonomous aircraft to perform a variety of missions. This paper reviews the motivation and theoretical basis of the HFC system, describes its current state of development, and presents results from two pilot-in-the-loop simulation studies. These preliminary studies suggest the HFC reshapes human-automation interaction in a way well-suited to revolutionary ease-of-use.

Designing to control flight crew errors

It is widely accepted that human error is a major contributing factor in aircraft accidents. This research has led to the call for changes in design according to human factors and human-centered principles. The NASAs Langley Research Center has initiated an effort to design a human-centered flight deck from a clean slate (i.e., without constraints of existing designs). The effort will be based on recent research in human-centered design philosophy and mission management categories. This design will match the humans model of the mission and function of the aircraft to reduce unnatural or nonintuitive interfaces. The product of this effort will be a flight deck design description, including training and procedures, and a cross reference or paper trail back to design hypotheses, and an evaluation of the design. This paper discusses the philosophy, process and status of this design effort.

Uncanny and Unsafe Valley of Assistance and Automation: First Sketch and Application to Vehicle Automation

Progress in sensors, computer power and increasing connectivity allow to build and operate more and more powerful assistance and automation systems, e.g. in aviation, cars and manufacturing. Besides many benefits, new problems occur e.g. in human-machine-interaction. In the field of automation, e.g. vehicle automation, a comparable, metaphorical design correlation is implied, an unsafe valley e.g. between partially- and highly-automated automation levels, in which due to misperceptions a loss of safety could occur. This contribution sketches the concept of the (uncanny and) unsafe valley of automation, summarizes early affirmative studies, gives first hints towards an explanation of the valley, outlines the design space how to secure the borders of the valley, and how to bridge the valley.

Automation and Inattentional Blindness in a Simulated Flight Task

The study reported herein is a subset of a larger investigation on the role of automation in the context of single pilot aviation operations. This portion of the study focused on the relationship between automation and inattentional blindness (IB) occurrences for a runway incursion. The runway incursion critical stimulus was directly relevant to primary task performance. Participants performed the final five minutes of a landing scenario in one of three automation conditions (autopilot, autothrottle, and manual). Sixty non-pilot participants completed this study and 70% (42 of 60) failed to detect the runway incursion critical stimulus. Participants in the partial automation condition were significantly more likely to detect the runway incursion when compared to those in the full automation condition. The odds of participant detection in the full automation condition did not significantly vary from the manual condition. Participants that detected the runway incursion did not have significantly higher scores on any component of the NASA-TLX compared to those who failed to detect. The relationship demonstrated between automation condition and IB occurrence indicates the role of automation in operational attention detriment.

Mission Status Graphics: A Quick Look at How You are Doing

The flight deck is an extremely complex environment—especially in busy non-normal situations. In an information rich environment, individual details can become compelling, causing the human to overlook others. In such environments, the operator needs a way to quickly assess the situation and return to dealing with issues that are most critical. Polar-star displays may aid this monitoring and preliminary diagnosis. The first polar star consists of mission oriented parameters and the second polar star consists of system oriented parameters. Commercial glass-cockpit airline-line pilots viewed static pictures of various aircraft configuration that included normal, non-normal, and alert conditions in order to see if the addition of the two polar-star displays aided them in monitoring and making preliminary diagnosis about the flight and aircraft status.

How to make the most of your human: design considerations for human–machine interactions

Abstract Reconsidering the function allocation between automation and the pilot in the flight deck is the next step in improving aviation safety. The current allocation, based on who does what best, makes poor use of the pilot’s resources and abilities. In some cases, it may actually handicap pilots from performing their role. Improving pilot performance first lies in defining the role of the pilot—why a human is needed in the first place. The next step is allocating functions based on the needs of that role (rather than fitness), and then using automation to target specific human weaknesses in performing that role. Examples are provided (some of which could be implemented in conventional cockpits now). Along the way, the definition of human error and the idea that eliminating/automating the pilot will reduce instances of human error will be challenged.

Synergistic Allocation of Flight Expertise on the Flight Deck (SAFEdeck): A Design Concept to Combat Mode Confusion, Complacency, and Skill Loss in the Flight Deck

This paper presents a new design and function allocation philosophy between pilots and automation that seeks to support the human in mitigating innate weaknesses (e.g., memory, vigilance) while enhancing their strengths (e.g., adaptability, resourcefulness). In this new allocation strategy, called Synergistic Allocation of Flight Expertise in the Flight Deck (SAFEdeck), the automation and the human provide complementary support and backup for each other. Automation is designed to be compliant with the practices of Crew Resource Management. The human takes a more active role in the normal operation of the aircraft without adversely increasing workload over the current automation paradigm. This designed involvement encourages the pilot to be engaged and ready to respond to unexpected situations. As such, the human may be less prone to error than the current automation paradigm.

Implementation of a research prototype onboard fault monitoring and diagnosis system

Due to the dynamic and complex nature of in-flight fault monitoring and diagnosis, a research effort was undertaken at NASA Langley Research Center to investigate the application of artificial intelligence techniques for improved situational awareness. Under this research effort, concepts were developed and a software architecture was designed to address the complexities of onboard monitoring and diagnosis. This paper describes the implementation of these concepts in a computer program called FaultFinder. The implementation of the monitoring, diagnosis, and interface functions as separate modules is discussed, as well as the blackboard designed for the communication of these modules. Some related issues concerning the future installation of FaultFinder in an aircraft are also discussed.