MODES IN AUTOMATED COCKPITS: PROBLEMS, DATA ANALYSIS, AND A MODELING FRAMEWORK

TL;DRAbstract

Today’s modern automated flight control systems employ a variety of different behaviors, or modes, in order to allow the crew flexibility in operating the aircraft. These modes lay along a continuum starting from fully-manual to fully-automatic control, with many levels in between. While developments in cockpit automation resulted in workload reduction and economical advantages, they also gave rise to a special class of human-machine problems. These ill defined problems are sometimes referred to as “automation surprises.” These phenomena usually involve confusion about the status of the autoflight control system—in particular its modes—and the subsequent behavior of the aircraft. Recently, there have been five fatal airline accidents involving, in one way or another, this class of human-machine problems. Our research involves a two-way approach: (1) summary analysis of mode usage data, and (2) the development of a methodology for describing human-automation interaction. The mode usage

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