Design and evaluation of an integrated avionics alerting system

While today's aircraft have integrated alerting systems for conditions inside the aircraft (ECAM, EICAS), there is no comparable fully integrated alerting system for conditions outside of the aircraft. Current and near-future, separate alerting systems warn of conditions such as time-critical terrain, traffic, wind shear, clear air turbulence, wake vortices, each using different alerting and display philosophies to present information to the flight crew. Separate systems contribute to alert proliferation and the potential for multiple conflicting alerts during emergency situations. An integrated alerting system should deconflict alerts, and present information in an integrated fashion. In response to these issues, we have developed the Alerting and Notification of Conditions Outside the Aircraft (ANCOA) concept. Key aspects of the concept include: (1) deconflicting currently separate alerts such as TCAS and EGPWS; (2), categorization (weather, traffic, ground) and prioritization (time-critical, tactical and strategic) of alerts to reduce pilot information processing requirements; (3) directional, multidimensional aural cueing to allow quick "pre-processing" of the condition (this aids in time-critical responses and prioritizing the alerted condition relative to the ongoing task); and (4) integrated graphic presentation of conditions external to the aircraft to support better situation awareness. This paper discusses the theory and implementation of the ANCOA concept, and presents a usability study to evaluate the display configuration, ease-of-use, functionality, and navigation of information within an initial simulator prototype. Nine pilots participated in six scenarios under various conditions in the Honeywell Laboratories Medium-Fidelity Flight Simulator. Additionally, pilots conducted an information categorization task, filled out pre- and post-questionnaires, and were interviewed for qualitative assessments. The data were used to assess if the ANCOA integrated system could effectively prioritize and de-conflict information, support improved detection and identification of threats, increase overall situation awareness, and support better planning decisions. A revised prototype is presented, based on the results of the evaluation.