Safe automation and human factors in aviation – intelligent integration and assistance
Activities should address a renewed safety focus on the teaming between the human and automation, given the steady increase in automation in aviation operations at large (e.g. in cockpit, ATC, maintenance, etc.), including for new airborne services and vehicles such as drones. When automation is unable to cope, control should be handed back safely to the human.
Prepare the next step-change in automation, artificial intelligence (AI), in two steps. Firstly, in the medium term with the role of AI as ‘Digital Assistant’, part of the team, earning the trust of the human operators and the flying public. Secondly, in the long term, with the potential of AI to take over operations. For the transition to digital assistant and ultimately to AI-run operations, develop a novel approach to Human Factors and to safety (and security) assurance methods and processes.
System transition issues should be addressed, to avoid an initial spate of ‘automation-assisted accidents’, as it happened at the last step change in the level of automation in aviation (‘glass cockpits’), which nevertheless resulted in significantly improved safety.
Activities should consider the increasing complexity in aviation e.g. traffic growth expected back in the mid/long-term, more ‘new entrants’ as drones, more extreme weather events, more environmental constraints leading to more complex systems and operations. In such an evolving aviation environment it is needed to better understand and anticipate why incidents happen – the triggering events/hazards, the cognitive failures and the challenges at the human-machine interface – in order to learn the right lessons and then share them both internally and externally. This includes the impact of physical and mental wellbeing on human performance and safety, both in a positive sense (e.g. motivation, positive safety culture) and in a negative sense (e.g. fatigue, constraints during/after pandemic times, fitness for duty, skill loss, and complacency).
More focus is needed then on Human Digital Interface design and on integrating AI into human crews and teams, as a smart assistant to explain, accompany and support operators, in particular at safety-critical situations and to recover from emergencies. More adaptive and trustworthy human-machine systems and more intuitive interfaces should be developed.
Developments should be applied to realistic operational and regulatory contexts while devising how to maintain safety culture and societal acceptance along with organisational and regulatory preparedness. Particular attention should be paid to possible differences such as age, gender and ethnography. Social innovation is recommended when the solution is at the socio-technical interface and requires social change, new social practices, social ownership or market uptake.
This topic requires the effective contribution of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions, as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.
Activities should go beyond the state of the art and previous R&I activities, at least at EU level[[Examples of aviation safety research projects available on:
- Projects For Policy (P4P) on Aviation Safety https://publications.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/b4690ade-3169-11e8-b5fe-01aa75ed71a1/language-en/format-PDF/source-75248795
- Coordination-support action OPTICS2 https://www.optics-project.eu/narratives/]]. Activities should ensure no overlap but complementarity for integration with any other aviation activities, such as SESAR / Transforming the European ATM System partnership. The proposals may include the explicit commitment from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to assist or to participate in the actions[[https://www.easa.europa.eu/domains/safety-management/research]].
In order to achieve the expected outcomes with increased resources and impact, international cooperation can be foreseen with third countries with relevant capacities in this domain, while ensuring that the respect of European IPR, interests and values is strictly guaranteed.
Synergies with other transport modes and safety/security critical sectors adopting more automation is welcomed, in particular on risk assessment and pre-normative research to ensure fit-for-purpose rulemaking and management systems and a high level of cyber-attack protection.
Synergies with other topics in Horizon Europe can be exploited such as in Cluster 4 e.g. HORIZON-CL4-2021-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01-02 (Software for low-power operation at the edge), HORIZON-CL4-2021-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01-11 (Pushing the limit of robotics cognition), in Cluster 3 e.g. HORIZON-CL3-2021-INFRA-01-01 (European infrastructures and their autonomy safeguarded against systemic risks), as well as with other EU programmes such as Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), NextGenerationEU and Digital Europe.