Departure Assistance

ACROSS WP5 (Aviate)

Kevin Theuma, Jason Gauci, David Zammit Mangion
Institute of Aerospace Technologies, University of Malta

INTRODUCTION CONCEPT OF OPERATION RESULTS

Hazardous weather can pose a significant threat to aircraft safety and may result in a When the DA was used, 10 pilots
substantial increase in crew workload, such as during departure manoeuvers. If the DA checks for weather conflicts
prior to departure and triggers reported a reduction in workload, 8
weather hazard conflicts with the flight plan, including the Standard Instrument reported an increase in workload,
Departure (SID) route, the pilots need to plan and execute an avoidance manoeuver. aural and visual alerts in the
event of a conflict and 1 pilot reported no change
To date, this is still a mostly manual task, with the crew gathering information from
multiple sources including Air Traffic Control (ATC), weather forecasts and onboard The Pilot Monitoring (PM) Differences in workload (without and
weather radar returns in order to determine an avoidance route. acknowledges the warning and with the DA) were not statistically
checks the proposed path on significant
To address this problem, the University of Malta has developed a decision support
tool to assist the pilots by partially automating the task of avoiding hazardous the DA HMI Mental effort is the main contributor
weather during departure. The main objectives of the tool are to reduce crew The Pilot Flying (PF) cross- to workload in all cases
NASA-TLX workload results per pilot
workload and increase Situation Awareness (SA) in two-pilot operations. checks the proposed route on
his Navigation Display (ND) Departure Assistance touchscreen display When the DA was used, 17 pilots
The PM requests ATC clearance reported an increase in SA, and 2
ALGORITHM DESIGN for deviation pilots reported a decrease
The PM accepts the proposed A statistically significant increase in
The following are the main steps of the proposed weather avoidance algorithm: path and returns to the EFIS Situation Awareness was observed
display when the DA was used
Predict weather cell movement based on wind characteristics
Increase in SA is mainly attributed to
Predict aircraft position along the departure route The PM checks the departure
increased awareness of the actual
time window information (and predicted) weather situation,
Detect any conflicts (overlap) between the weather cells and the departure route
The PF requests ATC for especially if the weather conflict is
Detect hazardous terrain by considering the minimum recommended climb profile CARS Situation Awareness ratings per pilot situated behind the aircraft
departure clearance
In the event of a weather conflict, find an alternative path (consisting of lateral
The PF flies along the proposed Common pilot feedback on DA HMI:
avoidance manoeuvers) which avoids the weather whilst staying clear of terrain
route using the autopilot
Calculate the validity (time window) of the proposed path deviation Navigation Display with the proposed route The DA could be triggered by the
pilots when required (as part of SOPs)
It is useful to display weather radar
data with uploaded weather data in
PILOT EVALUATIONS order to detect any inconsistencies
The path simulation feature is useful
for visualization and to understand
Evaluations were carried out in the NLR
algorithm logic
GRACE simulator over a period of three
weeks Waypoint information in the side
panel is not required. Pilot ratings of various DA HMI features
10 crews (19 pilots) participated in the
evaluations
Test scenarios were carried out at three
Functional block diagram of the weather Detection of hazardous terrain airports and repeated for a Baseline
avoidance algorithm configuration (without the DA) and the
ACROSS configuration (with the DA)
Qualitative and quantitative data was Evaluation test setup
HMI DESIGN gathered using a combination of post-run
and post-experiment questionnaires,
debriefing sessions, voice and video
The following are the main characteristics of the Departure Assistance (DA) HMI: recordings, eye tracking, and simulator data
User can interact with the HMI via a touchscreen logging Actual (flown) routes for Geneva scenario with the DA (left) and without the DA (right)
HMI consists of a map and a side-panel
With the DA, pilots tend to use the proposed route as a general guide
Map shows information such as the current flight plan, aircraft position and Test # Airport SID
Configuration Terrain
1 Baseline Without the DA, pilots sometimes opt for different weather avoidance strategies
heading, weather, hazardous terrain, and proposed path Schipol, Amsterdam (EHAM) IVLU2W Low
2 ACROSS
User can switch between different map views, use the pan/zoom controls, and
3 Geneva, Switzerland (LSGG) Baseline
adjust the Estimated Time of Departure (ETD)
4
ARBO7N
ACROSS
Moderate CONCLUSIONS
Side panel shows information such as the conflict time window, path deviation 5 Ohrid, Macedonia (LWOH) Baseline
waypoints and validity time window BUI1A Severe The DA is very useful for weather avoidance, particularly in the pre-flight phase
6 ACROSS
A playback tool is provided to simulate the path deviation The DA increases crew Situation Awareness
Evaluation test scenarios
User can notify ATC of the path deviation and receive ATC clearance The impact of the DA on crew workload can be clearly demonstrated by improving
the algorithm and conducting evaluations with more challenging conflict scenarios