Automation transparency and the design of intelligent aircraft engine interfaces

In this article we report progress on a programme of research to implement intelligent engine systems in civil aircraft. Modern turbofan engines capture data about their performance and health during flight. Until now, this information has remained hidden from the flight deck. Our research will examine how best to communicate these new information sources to the flight deck to deliver intelligent assistance in understanding engine health and offering choices to minimise disruption should an engine develop a fault that affects performance. We have adopted automation transparency as a key design pillar to ensure that flight crew have an appropriate understanding of the reasoning of the intelligent system under different operating conditions. User-centred design will inform the degree to which the different interface elements are transparent, informing the balance between the provision of information necessary to ensure safe and efficient performance. Currently, there is significant uncertainty as to whether automation transparency can confer a performance advantage in all cases. Our research will empirically investigate different levels of automation transparency to validate performance.