Reducing Aircraft Accidents: Can Intelligent Agent Paradigms Help?

It is suggested that at least 70% of aircraft accidents can be shown to have flight crew error as the major causal factor. These errors can be categorized into two domains, technical flight skill errors and non technical flight skill errors. This paper summarizes two intelligent agent paradigms, being developed by the KES/AERO research group, that operate within both the technical and non technical flight skill domains. The first paradigm describes three intelligent agents, two situated in the cockpit and one situated at the aerodrome, which function as a team. The second paradigm describes a single intelligent agent which functions in the education and training domain where inappropriate, and potentially unsafe, flight skills are first learned. These intelligent agents are designed to operate as either improvements to flight deck automation or additional flight crew.