Multisensory Feedback in Support of Pilot-Automation Coordination: The Case of Uncommanded Mode Transitions

Abstract

The introduction of advanced automation technology to the modern cockpit has created new attentional and monitoring demands for pilots whose primary role has shifted towards supervisory control. Observed breakdowns in pilots' mode awareness, i.e., in their knowledge and understanding of the current and future system configuration, suggest that these demands are not adequately supported by existing automation feedback. In particular, current feedback fails to highlight unexpected changes in system status and behavior due, in part, to designers' tendency to increasingly rely on focal visual attention instead of exploiting the wide range of sensory modalities available to human operators. In this study, we examined the feasibility and effectiveness of multisensory feedback for providing attentional guidance to pilots in case of unexpected mode transitions. Tactile or peripheral visual cues were presented in the context of a simulated flight scenario involving varying levels of competing visual demands. The results of this study indicate that the introduction of multisensory feedback is one effective way of capturing pilots' attention without necessarily affecting their performance on concurrent tasks.