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20 – 23 Sept 2018 | ExCeL London
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MY COCKPIT!
It’s 2040 and you’re piloting Britain’s newest fighter
aircraft. At Mach 1.2, you ask the AI assistant to plot
a course and hand it control of the plane. You switch
to night mode and look down to see an image of the
terrain below created from multiple sensors on the
plane’s skin...
Rewind to 2018 and engineers are working on a
sleek, stealthy combat aircraft that isn't due to fly
for many years. Yet its systems are not so far from
reality – they will be based on technologies being
developed by scientists at BAE Systems and the
University of Birmingham.
For pilots the changes will be profound. AI will
take on an increasing range of tasks, for example.
But the biggest change is likely to be in the look
and feel of the cockpit. “What we’re trying to do
is to augment the human,” says Nick Colosimo,
a technology strategist at BAE Systems.
Pilots today are largely stuck with a massive
array of instruments and controls. By making them
virtual, the cockpit can be de-cluttered so pilots see
only things that are relevant to their mission. They
can also personalise what they see, like customising
the home screen on their mobiles.
Head-up displays will be transformed to
have a very wide field of view in full-colour and
high-resolution. These will offer a wide range of
functions, such as adding markers to significant
locations that appear to be outside the cockpit.
Pilots’ brain waves and blood oxygen will be
monitored to detect when they are overloaded or
losing alertness. In such cases, the cockpit could
automatically de-clutter to focus attention. The
flight suit could also squeeze the pilots’ legs to
prevent blood flowing from the brain.
At New Scientist Live on Saturday 22 September,
Colosimo will discuss these developments with Bob
Stone, director of the human interface technologies
team at the University of Birmingham. Some he
hopes will transfer to everyday life. For example,
high g forces can make pilots’ arms feel
heavy while vibrations give them the
shakes. So researchers at BAE Systems
are testing hands-free ways to
communicate with the plane. One option
is eye-tracking, which Colosimo hopes
could eventually be transferred to the health
sector. “We hope we can spin back some
of this work,” he says.TECHNOLOGY
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