Approaches to mitigating complexity-driven issues in commercial autoflight systems

There appears to be broad consensus in the aviation community that increased automation in the cockpit has changed the task of flying commercial aircraft. The changes have been both beneficial, through the increase of capabilities and efficiencies, and detrimental, as indicated by accidents implicating automation as a contributory factor. It is hypothesized that the constraining factor on automation design has changed from technological to human. The evolutionary growth of the automation has increased complexity which is thought to have led to the lack of a global model of the automation upon which the training material and operator feedback can be designed. Based on these analyses, three classes of complexity mitigation management techniques are explored. The first is to train pilots to understand and work within the current automation system. The second is to enhance feedback to allow more effective monitoring of aircraft systems, and to allow a reduction in the apparent order of the system to the pilot. Finally, a modified development process is suggested which explicitly considers the pilot in early design stages. It is believed that a process-oriented solution will be necessary for future automation systems. This process uses an explicit automation model as a basis for training material and for software requirement specification.