OBJECTIVE
With the emergence of increasing numbers of aircraft systems involving human operators
interacting with "intelligent" automation, concerns have been raised regarding the trustworthiness
of the Human-Electronic Crew Team's decisions. Many of the decisions that the Team is required
to make occur in an imprecise world in which the judgements may be made based on such vague
concepts as high, low, near or far. The most effective decision aids in this type of environment
may be those which can interpret inexact data and still achieve sound solutions, such as fuzzy logic
decision aiding systems. Essentially, the problem comes down to the level of confidence that
higher authorities should have in the decisions, and in the resulting actions, of the Team. The
Human-Electronic Crew needs to be successfully developed and integrated such that it can function
effectively as a trustworthy Team in this inexact, real world. The specific purpose of this
workshop was to examine these concerns.
This workshop was a follow-up to two previously successful meetings (1988 and 1990) cosponsored
by the RAF and USAF. It provided a timely forum for experts of several countries to
measure progress in this critical technical area. It allowed for the exchange of new ideas, concepts
and data relative to hardware and software capabilities that can be included in aircraft system
design, to aid the human operator perform the mission. Attendance at the workshop was by
invitation only. The numbers of persons attending was restricted to 60. All invited attendees were
expected to contribute through active participation in the meeting discussions. It brought together
experts representing cockpit design disciplines including hardware and software technologists, as
well as human factors specialists and pilots to address such questions as:
(1) Do current development activities address the teaming issues?
(2) Are there some types or categories of decisions or actions that the Human-Electronic
Team should never be trusted with?
(3) What oversight checks should be placed on the Team?
(4) How does the Team communicate with the higher authorities?
(5) Are there other issues besides teaming which are crucial to the operational application
of the Electronic Crewmember concept?
The workshop comprised formal paper sessions and structured small group discussions. The
proceedings are published as reports of the sponsoring laboratories.
