IGF::OT::IGF MOTIVATED BY THE ANTICIPATION OF PILOT SHORTAGE IN THE FUTURE AND THE QUEST OF COST REDUCTION…

Public award description

IGF::OT::IGF MOTIVATED BY THE ANTICIPATION OF PILOT SHORTAGE IN THE FUTURE AND THE QUEST OF COST REDUCTION IN AIRLINE OPERATIONS, THE SINGLE-PILOT OPERATION (SPO) CONCEPT EMERGES AS A PROMISING ALTERNATIVE OF THE CURRENTDAY MULTI-PILOT OPERATIONS. THIS PROPOSAL ADDRESSES THE FEASIBILITY OF CONSTRUCTING A SPOKEN LANGUAGE UNDERSTANDING SYSTEM FOR DECODING VOICE COMMUNICATIONS IN AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL. IN PARTICULAR, WE ADDRESS THE ISSUE OF DEVELOPING A VOICE COMMUNICATION UNDERSTANDING SYSTEM (VCUS) THAT WOULD SERVE AS ONE KEY COMPONENT IN BOTH COCKPIT AUTOMATION AND GROUND-BASED AUTOMATION FOR SUPPORTING THE SPO CONCEPT. LEVERAGED FROM OUR PRIOR DEVELOPMENT ON NOISE-ROBUST SPEECH RECOGNITION SYSTEM FOR THE NAVY AND VIRTUAL AGENTS FOR NASA TO SUPPORT HUMAN-IN-THE-LOOP SIMULATIONS, AN INFRASTRUCTURE OF VCUS IN AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL OF COMMERCIAL FLIGHTS WILL BE DEVELOPED. A FEASIBILITY DEMONSTRATION OF THE VCUS THAT EXTRACTS OUT SEMANTIC INFORMATION FOR PERSISTENT DISPLAY OF CLEARANCE MESSAGE WITHIN THE FLIGHT DECK WILL BE PROVIDED BY THE END OF THE PHASE I RESEARCH. PHASE II WORK WILL UTILIZE THE INFRASTRUCTURE BUILT IN PHASE I TO EXPAND THE VCUS TO A FULL-SCALE PROTOTYPE THAT SUPPORTS COCKPIT AUTOMATION AND GROUND-BASED AUTOMATION FOR SPO.