Modeling approach to multi-agent system of human and machine agents: Application in design of early experiments for novel aeronautics systems

Design of future systems for flight-deck automation will reflect a trend of changing the paradigm of human-computer interaction from the master (human)- slave (machine) mode to more equilibrated cooperation. In many cases such cooperation considers several humans and computer systems, for which multi-agent dynamic cooperative systems are appropriate models. Development of such systems requires very profound analysis of mutual interactions and conflicts that may arise in such systems. Additional testing is exhaustive and expensive for such systems. In the scope of the D3CoS project these problems are addressed from the modelling point of view with ambition to create tools that will simplify the development phase and replace parts of the testing phase. In this paper we investigate common flight procedures, for which computer assistance could be developed. We show how formal modelling of procedures allows us to inspect procedural inconsistencies and workload peaks before the development starts. We show how a computer cognitive architecture (a virtual pilot) can simulate human pilot behaviour in the cockpit to address questions typical for the early phase of the development. Analysis of these questions allows us to reduce the number of candidates for the final implementation without the need of expensive experiments with human pilots. This modelling approach is demonstrated on experiments undertaken both with human pilots and a virtual pilot. The quality of the outcome from both experimental settings remains conserved as shown by physiological assessment of pilot workload, which in turn justifies the use of the modelling approach for this type of problems.