Aircraft Hands-Free Remote Operation for Pilot Incapacity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current aircraft systems lack the capability to autonomously enable remote operation in situations where the pilot is incapacitated or unable to manually operate the vehicle, leading to potential safety risks due to distractions, workload overload, or other impairments.
Innovation Solution
The system autonomously detects events impacting manual operation, activates hands-free functionality, and enables remote control through speech-to-text or text-to-speech capabilities, allowing external systems to communicate with onboard systems to perform automated actions, thereby mitigating the impact of pilot incapacity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If automation systems are incorporated into vehicles to improve operations and reduce stress, then reliability and ease of operation are improved, but the system cannot handle abnormal events or pilot incapacity, leading to safety risks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a hands-free functionality as an intermediary communication channel between the pilot and external systems. When the pilot is incapacitated, this intermediary enables remote operators to communicate commands and receive status information without requiring manual input from the pilot, thus resolving the safety risk while maintaining system reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service by automatically detecting pilot incapacity through monitoring systems and autonomously activating the hands-free functionality. This allows the vehicle system to serve itself by initiating remote communication capabilities without requiring manual intervention from the incapacitated pilot or other crew members
2Adaptability or versatility
If hands-free functionality is activated to enable remote operation, then adaptability to pilot incapacity is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The hands-free functionality is designed with multi-functionality, serving both normal operational communication and emergency remote operation scenarios. This universal design allows the same system component to handle multiple functions, reducing the need for separate dedicated systems and thereby limiting the increase in device complexity while improving adaptability
3Ease of operation
If the system autonomously activates hands-free functionality to enable remote control, then ease of operation during pilot incapacity is improved, but the extent of automation increases system complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by pre-configuring the hands-free functionality and monitoring systems that detect pilot incapacity. When incapacity is detected, the system has already prepared the communication channel, allowing for immediate activation without complex real-time decision-making processes, thus improving ease of operation while managing automation complexity
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems are provided for autonomously enabling remote operation of a vehicle such as an aircraft in response to detecting an event that may impact manual operation of the vehicle. One method autonomously detects an event with respect to manual operation of the vehicle based at least in part on output from one or more systems onboard the vehicle, identifies a hands-free functionality of a vehicle system to be activated based at least in part on a characteristic of the event, and autonomously initiates activation of the hands-free functionality of the vehicle system. A command for operating the vehicle is received from an external system via an onboard communications system and provided to the vehicle system for further implementation or execution using the hands-free functionality.