Engineering approach for Rotorcraft Pilot´s Associate cognitive decision aiding systems development

This paper describes our concurrent engineering approach for the Rotorcraft Pilots Associate (RPA) program. The process integrates knowledge acquisition, rapid prototyping, and evaluation into a system development process. The approach is an iterative process which gathers knowledge, uses rapid prototyping to develop Cognitive Decision Aiding System software, uses simulation and embedded measures of effectiveness and measures of performance to evaluate the Cognitive Decision Aiding System mission effectiveness. Improvement areas identified in the evaluation feed the next iteration. Army helicopter pilots/copilot-gunners are the primary domain experts for Cognitive Decision Aiding knowledge acquisition and are heavily involved in the crew interface design. This “end user” involvement in the design process ensures feedback early enough to impact development and produces an end product that meets the customers needs