Application of a crew-centered cockpit design process and toolset

This paper describes the benefits of a new process for performing cockpit design by tracing a sample problem to its resolution through the application of the process and its accompanying toolset. The activities performed and the toolset selected illustrate the enormous potential of this evolving technology in future cockpit design and development. The Human Systems Center´s Armstrong Laboratory initiated the Crew-Centered Cockpit Design (CCCD) Program in the mid-1980´s in response to a need for a formal, structured process to improve the design, analysis, and testing of cockpit designs. Veda Incorporated is working with the CCCD Program Office to provide an enhanced and validated Crew-Centered System Design Process (CSDP) and a Cockpit Design System (CDS) toolset to meet this need. This paper presents the concept of use for the CSDP and CDS toolset that is currently being applied in a series of field demonstrations to a variety of cockpit designs and upgrades. The sample problem presented in this paper was actually performed in 1993; however, many of the capabilities of the CSDP and the CDS that are described are still in development. The concurrent application of the evolving process and toolset in real-world applications is facilitating the verification of the end products of the program. This article is written from the perspective of the analyst/designer assigned to use the process and toolset to solve a typical problem and to demonstrate the utility of the CSDP and the CDS toolset