Situation-Driven Workload-Adaptive Pilot/Vehicle Interface

We propose to explore the feasibility of developing a pilot/vehicle interface (PVI) concept that uses a computational situation assessment (SA) model and pilot workload metrics to drive the content, format, and modality of military cockpit displays. Our proposed concept integrates two key information streams: 1) a "content" path, driven by a tactical situation assessment module that uses avionics system outputs to determine the aircraft's current condition and the pilot's information needs based on the assesed situation; and 2) a "format" path, which uses an estimate of the pilot's state (workload level, attentional focus, etc.) to determine the most appropriate modality for presenting the needed information to the pilot. The goal is to develop a PVI that: 1) maximizes the pilot's situation awareness by filtering out situationally irrelevant information; and 2) makes optimal use of the pilot's parallel channels of information processing by using his multiple sensory modalities to transfer information between pilot and vehicle. Concept feasibility will be demonstrated on a limited-scope prototype that uses commerical off-the-shelf components to create an adaptive PVI in a simulated flight environment.