A real-time approach to information management in a pilot´s associate

A primary goal of the Pilot´s Associate (PA) program is to enhance combat fighter pilot effectiveness by increasing a pilot´s situational awareness and decreasing the workload. The Information Manager (IM) supports the pilot by intelligently presenting timely information in an easily interpreted form. The authors describe the requirements which a successful IM must fulfil. Among these are processing pilot display requests, reducing workload by configuring controls and displays automatically, alerting the pilot of pertinent events, and decluttering displays based on the pilot´s current workload. In addition to these requirements, six constraints have been placed on the output of IM. IM´s output must be timely and relevant, flexible and responsive, and predictable and intuitive. The constraints were addressed by the IM design. Search Technology´s approach to providing information management in a real-time avionics environment is outlined. This approach has two main parts: the design and real-time considerations of the design