ABSTRACT
The aviation industry has experienced a considerable level of automation control in the past twenty years. For almost any task, pilots, crew members, maintenance operators, air traffic controllers, as well as, other specialized personnel can now benefit from the use of automation. For pilots, automation has reduced the burden of excessive in-flight workload and resulted in fuel efficiency and enhanced all weather flying. However, such use of automation has also resulted in a number of behavioral problems related to flight management and systems safety. These problems include a loss of situational awareness (SA), monitoring inefficiency, increased mental workload, and sometimes, pilot's inability to effectively revert to manual control in cases of system breakdowns or malfunctions (Mouloua, Parasuraman, 1994; Parasuraman & Mouloua, 1996; Wiener, 1988; Wickens, 1994). Clearly, These pitfalls can be attributed to technology-centered "conventional" automation, in which the function between the pilot and automation remains fixed at all times. Understanding how pilots interact with automation in the cockpit is crucial for safety, pilot and system performances, as well as for system design. The present chapter describes some of the human factors issues associated with automation design and presents some considerations for future pilot training and system design.
