Increased automation assistance for the pilot for ATM tasks

Expected Outcome

To significantly advance the following development actions:

• IR-5-01 Single pilot operations (SiPO). This includes new sensors and aircraft architectures for the evolution towards SiPO/highly automated operations.
• IR-5-02 Increased automation assistance for the pilot for ATM tasks. This includes improved flight-deck HMI and procedures for CPDLC, voice-less technology, etc.

Scope

The following list of R&I needs is proposed as an illustration of the potential project content, but it is not meant as prescriptive. Proposals may include other research elements beyond the proposed research elements below if they are justified by their contribution to achieve the expected outcomes of the topic and are fully aligned with the development priorities defined in the European ATM Master Plan.

• Single pilot operations (SiPO)

In single pilot operations (SiPO) there will only be one pilot onboard at any given time during flight, also during critical phases of flight such as take-off and landing.

Research shall address the impacts on air/ground procedures to be followed by the different actors (air traffic ATCOs, pilots, and ground operators of the airline flight operations centres) needed to manage the normal, abnormal, and emergency situations of SiPO that are related to ATM, with the needed safety and the acceptable efficiency in all phases of flight.

Research shall also address the development of the required airborne avionics for supporting SiPO that are related to ATM tasks (e.g., flight management system, surveillance function, autonomous navigation system for all phases of flight, etc.). These systems will require advanced automation and assistance in the flight deck with the objective of discharging the pilot from routine tasks in ATM, including navigation, allowing them to focus on the most critical tasks (i.e., safety of operations).

The research should aim at minimising the impacts on ATC operators, on their tools (ATC ground systems) and on the ATC-cockpit communications means.

Current error management very much relies on crosschecks between the two crew members, e.g., input of ATC altitude request to autopilot system. For a safe implementation of SiPO it will be essential to address the mitigation of the risk posed by increased errors in operations related to ATM and navigation due to missing crosschecks. Research should also consider the mitigation of the risk of a delay in the implementation of ATC instructions, e.g. due to it coinciding with a moment of high cockpit workload and/or a physiological break of the single pilot. The management from the ATM perspective of the pilot incapacitation emergency situation is also in scope.

If AI-based tools are applied, research should not only address workload and decision-making but also the adherence to procedures including crosschecks between the pilot and AI.

Research may consider mainline aircraft and/or commuter aircraft and/or business aircraft. For example, the following operational use cases may be addressed, potentially with different target maturity levels:

• Operation on the ground at complex airports.
• Operation on the ground at secondary airports.
• Low visibility operations with CAT II and/or CATIII.
• Operations at complex TMAs with destination/origin the main airport or a secondary airport.

Note that there is on-going work on this research element under projects SOLO, DARWIN and RESPONSE.

• Artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance flight crew capabilities

Research aims at investigating how AI can support pilots in complex and critical situations, when workload may be high and/or the time to react very limited and thus improve safety. The pilot can cooperate and collaborate with the automation on board allowing efficient teaming with the automation.

For these situations, research should focus, for example, on how to exploit high levels of automation to perform non-critical ATM tasks for pilots and how the HMI should work during such operations, so the pilot can focus on essential tasks (e.g., during taxi-out, descend, approach and landing). The tasks needed to successfully execute the mission can be dynamically allocated between human pilot and automation onboard. In addition, AI-powered applications could support the pilots in situations where workload is low e.g., engaging pilot’s attention and alert the pilot in case something unexpected happens. The scope includes all pilot tasks related to ATM, including navigation and taxi on the airport surface. An area of particular focus is the management of high pilot workload situations during the descent, approach, and landing; the objective is to free pilot resources to allow the use of CPDLC with push-to-load in the TMA. Research may address the development of algorithms (that are certifiable) based on reinforcement learning to help the pilot make decisions (e.g., decisions considering the impact of system failures on performance, weather, wind at alternate, range, etc.).

The research results should demonstrate how the technology could support pilots in carrying out their tasks (e.g., demonstrate an increase in human capabilities during the execution of complex scenarios or a reduction in human workload in the execution of standard tasks), and assess the impact on the role of the human. The research shall also address the methods and approaches that will lead to safe human-AI teaming that will lead to certifiability of the future applications.

These applications may play a significant role in the transition to single pilot operations; proposals in this area must demonstrate the relevance of their proposed work for ATM. Note that there is on-going work related to this research element under projects JARVIS and DARWIN.

• Advanced on-board systems and procedures in support of highly automated ATM operations

Research aims at developing on-board avionics and procedures, including flight crew digital assistants for fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, in support of highly automated ATM applications. Higher level of automation defined in the ATM master plan is enabled by teaming of human pilot with digital assistants and providing human oversight to the flight. The scope includes research elements such as:

• Improved on-board interface for ATM communications (voice, to reduce flight crew workload in the management of complex CPDLC clearances, and flight crew support to monitor their correct execution.
• Use of CPDLC in the lower levels, including tactical uplink of 2D route revision, vertical clearances, clearance for approach, clearance to land, clearance for take-off, etc.
• On-board systems for automatic route negotiation between aircraft systems and ATM.
• Development of airborne digital assistants for the flight crew in support of ATM tasks to reduce flight crew workload and ensure safety levels are maintained when operating in a more complex environment. The research may include : support for FF-ICE/R2 negotiations, support for taxi operations in large airports with complex lay-outs (including CPDLC taxi clearances and support for their on-board implementation), support for sustainable taxi operations (single engine taxi or with sustainable taxi vehicles), support for wake-energy retrieval operations, support for wake vortex encounter avoidance, support for taxi in low-visibility conditions (addressing in particular expeditious vacation of the runway), etc.
• Development of ATS B2 Revision B.

Proposals in this area must demonstrate the relevance of their proposed work for ATM. The development of cockpit automation that is not relevant to ATM is out of scope.

This element would benefit from air-ground integrated validation activities integrating the ground prototypes (covered in WA 3) and the airborne prototypes (covered in WA 5).

• Flight-deck support for ATS B2 CPDLC v2/v4 on the airport surface.

This solution covers the development of the flight-deck (HMI, potentially including digital assistants, and avionics, including extension of push-to-load capabilities if needed), in support of the enhanced use of CPDLC on the airport surface. This includes an enhancement of the D-TAXI capabilities to allow the use of CPDLC to uplink taxi clearances when the aircraft is already taxiing, as well as for the uplink of a revised departure route at any point after the aircraft has left the gate until shortly before take-off. The new departure route could be a SID (i.e., one of the published departure routes from the airport) or a custom-made departure route (e.g., a published SID but with vertical constraints aimed at facilitating a better climb profile). This increased flexibility will make it possible to uplink departure routes shortly before take-off with vertical constraints to ensure separation with other aircraft so that aircraft fly more efficient vertical profiles. This applies in particular to the tactical uplink shortly before take-off of departure routes, potentially with vertical constraints. EFB applications supporting the implementation of ATS-B2 clearances and/or the downlink of ADS-C data are also in scope. Note that the load of CPDLC clearances into FMS is not expected to go through the EFB but directly through direct connection between the CPDLC box and the FMS; EFB applications may be used to support the flight crew managing the clearances received via CPDLC (e.g., performance analysis, presentation, etc.).

This element would benefit from air-ground integrated validation activities integrating the ground prototypes (covered in WA 4) and the airborne prototypes (covered in WA 5).

• Automation of QNH transmission between ground system and aircraft

The exchange of QNH information and the corresponding checks performed by ATS and the flight crew remain manual, increasing the workload for human operators. Moreover, the transmission of incorrect altimeter setting (QNH) between the ground system and the aircraft can lead to serious safety incidents[1]. Research aims at developing solutions for the complete automation of QNH transmission and checks between ground equipment and avionics without human intervention.

[1] https://bea.aero/en/investigation-reports/notified-events/detail/serious-incident-to-the-airbus-a320-registered-9h-emu-operated-by-airhub-on-23-05-2022-at-paris-charles-de-gaulle-ad/