A situation-driven adaptive pilot/vehicle interface

This paper describes an effort under way to develop a pilot/vehicle interface (PVI) that uses computational situation assessment models and pilot workload metrics to drive the content, format, and modality of cockpit displays. The goal of this research is to develop PVI concepts that support a tactical pilot's situation awareness and decision-making. The envisioned system is driven by two key information streams: a content path, driven by a tactical situation assessment module that uses avionics system outputs to determine the aircraft's current tactical situation and the pilot's information needs based on the situation; and a format path, which uses an estimate of the pilot's state (workload level attentional focus, etc.) to determine the most appropriate modality for conveying the required information to the pilot. The system will be integrated into the SIRE simulator at the Armstrong Laboratory.