Development process for a remote co-pilot to support single-pilot operation in a next-generation air transportation system

Abstract

The Next Generation Intelligent Cockpit (NICo) project at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is conducting holistic research into the opportunities and risks of single-pilot operations. NICo’s mission is to evaluate SPO in a scientifically neutral way and to identify novel technologies for the next generation of aircraft. As part of the project, research is focused on the development of a remote co-pilot. This paper provides an overview of the development process, from conceptual considerations to the change of the task distribution in the cockpit to the design of the user interface for the future remote co-pilot.

This paper is one of two complementary reports that together describe a joint development for a remote co-pilot system. The present paper is a discussion of the development process from the perspective of aerospace research. The counterpart, the user-centered approach from a designer’s point of view, is described in the companion AHFE paper by Findeisen entitled User-centered design process for a high-risk future aerospace system (Findeisen et al. 2023).