Crew intent-inference: a human factors approach to flight deck automation and decision support

In this paper we describe a human factors approach to decision support systems design, called Crew Intent Inference, that shifts the focus from the automation systems to the user. Systems that generate expectations of the crew´s intent can provide enhanced decision support in numerous ways, among which is better aircrew coordination. We discuss crew coordination issues and how an intent-aware system might promote better coordination. Intent Inference involves the analysis of an operator´s actions to identify the possible goals being pursued by that operator. Extending intent inference to cases involving crews can allow observations of individual operators´ actions to be used to infer the goals of the entire team. Conversely, knowledge of the team´s goals can be used to predict the actions and information needs of individual crew members. We discuss our preliminary work in extending this approach to the aircrew coordination domain