The Risk of Human-Automation Conflict
As the aviation industry accelerates toward Single Pilot Operations (SPO) to optimize fleet efficiency, the cognitive load on the sole pilot increases exponentially.
Current autonomous systems often operate as "black boxes," creating a transparency gap. This leads to human-automation conflict, loss of situational awareness, and a dangerous degradation of trust. The industry faced a critical question: How do we ensure AI acts not just as a tool, but as a symbiotic partner?
02 | The SolutionAutomated Cognitive Mapping
The SymbIA project (SYMBiotic Intelligent Agent) is a massive collaborative R&D initiative uniting four academic institutions and three industry titans, including Bombardier and Collins Aerospace. The goal is to monitor the pilot’s cognitive state in real-time to enhance AI transparency.
The Cognitive Group revolutionized the research process by deploying Generative AI to automate "Think-Aloud" protocols.
The Cognitive Group’s Strategic Contribution
We served as the bridge between theoretical research and industrial-grade human factors engineering, focusing on three pillars:
- Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA): Validating pilot workflows under SPO conditions to identify "cognitive bottlenecks."
- Human-Autonomy Teaming (HAT): Providing frameworks for bidirectional communication and trust calibration.
- User-Centered Interface Design: Designing cockpit interfaces that maintain situational awareness during automated maneuvers.
Industrial Advantage & Safety
By automating the structure of pilot feedback, we reduced analysis time by over 80%, allowing researchers to iterate on cockpit designs in days rather than months. This provides partners like Bombardier and Collins with a roadmap for the next generation of safe, autonomous flight vehicles.