FINDER, a system providing complex decision support for commercial transport replanning operations

Decision-aid systems, likely to appear in future aircraft generations, could play a central role in the cockpit thanks to the broad spectrum of functionalities and decision support facilities they will offer to the crew. As part of such systems, the exploratory FINDER mockup is a knowledge-based system (KBS) designed to help crew members continually optimize their flight plan by suggesting solutions considering exhaustive information related to flight context, either on pilot request or upon external information occurrence. The successful evaluation by AIR FRANCE pilots of that first mock-up dedicated to diversion procedure on pilot request has led to the current development of an enhanced system with nominal Enroute operations and real-time capabilities. Nominal Enroute operations concerns the optimization with respect to an evolutive constraining or favouring environment (due to weather, traffic or regulated areas, ETOPS constraints). This study paves the way for a future Flight Assistant System concept