An exploration of pilot workload and attention in autonomously piloted fighter aircraft

Manned-unmanned teaming is set to be the future of air combat. In this environment, a trained artificial intelligence (AI) “pilot” can fly the aircraft while the human pilot focuses on other tasks more suited to the human. Research is currently being done to examine the trust between the human and non-human teammates in the cockpit of a fighter aircraft. This study will focus on the human side of this team, more specifically the operator workload response in different phases of flight during air combat maneuvers (ACM) while an autonomous pilot is in control of the aircraft.

In order for the human in the cockpit to effectively perform other tasks while the AI pilot flies the aircraft, the human’s workload state must be at an appropriate level to allow for secondary or tertiary tasks. The goal of this research is to identify phases of ACM which result in elevated or lowered workload responses and use the results therein to better understand human trust in autonomy.

The results will show which ACM-specific factors (distance between aircraft, relative positioning of the aircraft, etc.) and which in-cockpit factors (task-loading, information presented to the pilot, etc.) drive the workload response in the human. From these results, a clearer picture of what AI-pilot behaviors and human-machine interfaces (HMI) can help the pilot more effectively complete necessary tasks while the AI pilot operates the aircraft.