Software Engineering Institute

Elli Kanal and Mike Philips discuss the degree to which automation has become involved in flying and controlling airplanes, and they describe the dangers associated with its extensive use as well as how to mitigate its risks.

Today’s airplanes use automation to assist pilots during flights. Airplane computers often take control of navigation, they have the capability of performing landing and takeoff maneuvers, and they can make decisions over many aspects of the flight. As automation continues to expand, however, conflicts can arise if a human pilot needs to take immediate control of an airplane because of an unexpected event, but the computer blocks the pilot from doing so. In this cyber talk episode, Elli Kanal and Mike Philips discuss some of the dangers that can occur during handoff of control between humans and computers. They also discuss how to manage risk during handoffs—especially during unexpected events—to ensure the safe operation of the airplane and its recoverability in the face of a crisis. To address the possibility of better human-computer interaction, they consider a system that uses artificial intelligence to interact with pilots so that they can reach conclusions, make decisions, and help resolve issues more quickly and accurately than pilots or computers could on their own. In addition, they explore design issues that could hamper human-computer interactions.