Aircraft Detect and Avoid Gauge for Pilot Workload Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current Detect and Avoid (DAA) systems for aircraft lack guidance on gathering and analyzing airspace data to generate pilot-relevant displays, particularly for low-altitude operations and conventional piloted aircraft, leading to increased pilot workload and situational awareness challenges.
Innovation Solution
An aircraft flight information system that includes a processor, display device, and memory, capable of receiving data on multiple aircraft in an airspace, generating a detect and avoid gauge displaying flightpath indicators and projected separation violations, and providing alert bands to guide pilots in reducing workload and improving situational awareness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If DAA systems provide comprehensive airspace data to pilots, then situational awareness is improved, but pilot workload increases due to information overload
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments comprehensive airspace data into prioritized categories (immediate hazards, moderate risks, informational) and presents them through distinct visual elements on the display. Critical separation violation information is highlighted with alert bands and prominent positioning, while less critical data is presented in a more condensed format, enabling pilots to process information hierarchically rather than encountering a uniform wall of data.
Solution Approach 2:
The system extracts and isolates the most critical information—projected separation violations and immediate flight safety hazards—and presents them through dedicated visual elements such as colored alert bands and highlighted flight path indicators. This extraction allows pilots to quickly identify and respond to critical issues without being distracted by less urgent information.
2Productivity
If DAA systems display detailed flightpath and separation data, then decision-making capability is improved, but display complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The display applies different visual qualities to different information elements based on their importance. Critical separation violation data uses high-contrast colors, bold formatting, and prominent positioning. Less critical flight path information uses subtler visual cues. This local differentiation of display quality enables pilots to quickly identify critical information without requiring the entire display to use complex, high-detail rendering.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses color coding to convey the urgency and nature of different flight safety information. Alert bands in red or yellow indicate potential or actual separation violations, while green or blue indicators show safe separation zones. This color-based semantic encoding allows pilots to rapidly interpret complex separation data through intuitive color associations rather than requiring detailed numerical analysis.
3Measurement precision
If DAA systems analyze multiple possible flightpaths, then accuracy of separation violation detection is improved, but computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary flight path analysis by calculating estimated flightpaths for multiple possible aircraft trajectories in advance, before actual separation violations occur. By pre-computing these projected paths and comparing them against separation standards, the system can proactively identify potential violations and present them to pilots before they become critical, reducing the need for continuous real-time computational intensive analysis.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of generating an aircraft display includes receiving data at a device. The data includes information associated with a first aircraft and one or more other aircraft in an airspace associated with the first aircraft. The method includes determining, at the device, estimated flightpaths for the first aircraft and the one or more other aircraft. The method includes generating, at the device, a detect and avoid gauge display based on a current flightpath of the first aircraft and the estimated flightpaths. The method also includes sending, from the device to a display device coupled to the device, the detect and avoid gauge for display. The detect and avoid gauge is configured to display a flightpath indicator to indicate a direction of travel of the first aircraft and is configured to display alert bands related to projected separation violations with respect to the one or more other aircraft.