The cockpit of the future by Thales Innovation for future civil and military avionics platforms

The cockpit will be a key factor shaping the aircraft of the future. In an increasingly complex environment, the cockpit must be engineered to be more user-friendly and give pilots the information they need to do their job. Thales is working on a newgeneration cockpit incorporating the very latest market trends and evolutions in the aviation sector for fixed and rotary wing aircraft. The Cockpit 3.0 must be ready to face different kinds of challenges. Among these are the growing complexity of the operating environment and avionics systems, and continuing efforts to make the cockpit safer and smaller. Current-generation cockpits are not designed for such challenges: crews are expected to acquire an increasing set of skillswhich means more trainingand many complex functions remain unused, making the pilot the weak link in the system. At Thales, we believe on the contrary that the cockpit should be crew-centric: no longer confined to tasks that automatic systems are incapable of performing, the crew will be at the heart of a system designed to leverage their strengths (creativity, initiative, insight and logic) and help manage their weaker points (physical and cognitive aspects).

Odicis - an innovative cockpit concept Odicis (One DIsplay for a Cockpit Interactive Solution) is a touchscreen-based display system concept enabling information to be presented in new ways in all types of aircraft. Adaptable to both civil and military aircraft, as well as to helicopters, Odicis can be configured to provide more freedom in how the display space and touchscreen surface are used. Drawing on research work undertaken for the Cockpit 3.0 initiative, Odicis is a crew-centric system able to keep the entire display area on screen even after a series of malfunctions. Odiciss touchscreen capability makes it possible to explore simpler human-system interfaces that allow the pilot to focus fully on the job of flying the aircraft. The innovations featured in Odicis are designed chiefly to improve the crew-system interface, notably by offering the pilot very flexible configurations, a simpler presentation of system procedures (flight warnings and alarms, system pages, checklists, etc.), decision support and new means of interaction. All of these

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elements underpin a philosophy geared towards the crews needs rather than dividing the cockpit into different screens and controls. The innovations in Odicis also address emerging requirements dictated by the major SESAR/NextGen and Clean Sky programmes. Future functions mandated by these programmes will require new information to be displayed (i4D, ADS-B), thereby increasing the amount of data the crew has to handle. Odicis merges mission data and shows them in simpler fashion on a larger and more legible display area to ease the workload and complexity. At the present stage of research, Odicis is supporting efforts to demonstrate the operational advantages of a single screen, explore the product technologies needed to achieve it, validate its feasibility, identify its limits and look into system architectures able to accommodate the required level of dependability. This cockpit should be operational by 2025. Thales is focusing its efforts on 3 areas: Designing interfaces that adapt to the operator rather than expecting the operator to adapt to the system, capable of providing the crew with the tools and information they need not only to perform tasks at hand but also to anticipate tasks ahead. Other systems may monitor pilots, warning them for example if any signs of tiredness or a lapse in concentration are detected. Handling and hiding complexity, through intuitive interfaces that mimic the crews modes of reasoning and perception. For example, in poor visibility conditions pilots will have a synthetic view on the windshield or projected on the visor of a helmet replacing the real landscape they would see in normal weather conditions; or in the event of a malfunction, decision-support tools will focus on pilot tasks rather than providing detailed engineer-centric views of the system architecture. Supporting new forms of interaction. Today, the conventional screen/keyboard/mouse model is increasingly giving way to new modes of interaction encouraged by new personal devices like the iPad. We therefore need to assess how we can leverage such innovationstouchscreens, 3D displays, gesture recognition, augmented reality and so oneffectively in the cockpit to achieve real gains in the degree of interaction with avionics systems.

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Thaless vision of the Cockpit 3.0 could therefore feature a permanent colour head-up display (HUD), a single touchscreen (possibly 3D), voice or gesture recognition and maybe physiological sensors able to monitor crew status. In short, a product that is safer, smaller and easier to use. To translate this vision into reality, Thales is working with pilots to test the cockpit environment and system usability and with key customers like Airbus, Eurocopter and Dassault, as well as with partner university research laboratories and innovative SMEs. For example, Thales is working with a Cognitics Institute on human factors in the design of the cockpit of the future, and with design schools to tap into their futuristic vision of cockpits.

Some innovations and breakthroughs may be introduced at the 2020 horizon depending on the technical readiness level maturity

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