Integrating Critical Information on Flight Deck Displays

Abstract

Honeywell Laboratories has developed a concept for integrating multiple sources of data concerning information outside the aircraft. The concept, ANCOA (Alerting and Notification for Conditions Outside the Aircraft), was conceived as means for reducing error conflicts and establishing a clear prioritization among currently independent and disparate alerting systems for hazards external to the aircraft (e.g., TCAS, EGPWS). This paper documents an empirical evaluation of ANCOA by 12 professional pilots. The concept was evaluated in Honeywell Laboratories' Flight Simulation Laboratory in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Two core ANCOA features were manipulated and compared. The first was the integration of information by comparing ANCOA's integrated, overlaid features to a traditional display layout where the information was available on separate displays. The second variable was the categorization for incoming alerts (traffic, terrain, weather, scheduling constraints) by comparing alerts sorted by category to those without a category differentiation. Data support the integration of currently disparate systems onto a single display with performance requiring fewer pilot inputs and yielding lower workload scores. Categorization had little influence on pilot performance.