A model of pilot trust and dynamic workload allocation

For pilots to accept active decision aids during complex flight scenarios, it is essential that the automation work is in synergy with the aircrew. To accomplish this, the automation must go beyond menu selections, where the pilot explicitly tells the automation what to do and when to do it. It must also transcend “mother may I” approaches, where the automation asks permission to proceed. To breach these barriers, the automation needs a sense of how the pilot will react in a given situation and, based on that reaction, how much of the workload could be allocated to the automation. To this end, the authors have produced and tested a dynamic model of pilot trust and workload allocation. This “full degrees of freedom” model can be combined with other information obtained from static and continuous processes to allocate tasks and minimize cognitive overload