Augmented Cognition and the Cognitive Cockpit

LT Jefferson D. Grubb MSC USNNAVAIR Human Systems Department

Aircrew Information Needs

• Flight Information– Speed, altitude, attitude etc.

• Systems information– RPM, temperature, voltage, fuel etc.

• Navigation information– Where am I? Where is the airport? Where is that

mountain?

• Mission Information– Targets, Traffic, Threats, etc

Evolution of the Navy Cockpit

Effective Cockpit Design

• Cockpits are designed to a happy medium

The Problem

• Cockpits are static

• Pilots’ information needs and capabilities are not– Performance changes with

arousal– Modalities matter

Central Executive

Pho

nological loop

Visuospatial

sketchpad

An adaptive cockpit would have to read the pilot’s mind

Reading the Mind

• Cognitive state is brain state

• Neuroimaging techniques monitor brain state

Neuroimaging Techniques

• Electromagnetic techniques– EEG/ERP, MEG/ERF

• Measure electromagnetic consequences of brain activity

– Timing of brain activity– Intensity of brain activity

• Hemodynamic techniques– fMRI, PET, fNIRS

• Measure changes in blood flow and oxygenation associated with brain activity

– Location of brain activity» Different locations are

associated with different functions

AugCog and CogPit• DARPA’s Improving Warfighter

Information Intake Under Stress (formerly Augmented Cognition) Program– Apply neuroimaging to solve human

factors problems• Cognitive Cockpit (CogPit)

– Joint QinetiQ/Alion/NAVAIR project to apply neuroimaging to aviation

Constraints on Techniques

• Equipment– Cost– Size– Power consumption– “Weird Stuff”– Comfort

Constraints on Techniques

• Signal processing

Techniques of Choice

• EEG– Spectral Power Density– Interelectrode coherence

• fNIRS– Blood Oxygenation

How it Works

• Hook the “pilot” up

Calibrate

• 3 levels of tracking task

• 3 levels of Bakan task

• 4 combinations of Bakan and Tracking

5

CogMon• Records spectral power and

interelectrode coherence

• Produces linear model relating physiological signal to different levels of tracking and Bakan task

• Rates subsequent recordings against model to produce judgment of pilot spatial and verbal workload in real time

ATAS Cockpit

• Low cost, maximally open source

• Allows great flexibility to prototype “mitigation strategies”

Knowledge Coordinator

• Assesses pilot workload and mission context.

• Triggers workload mitigations

CogPit Closed Loop

Control Inputs

Information

Mitigations

Mission Context

Cognitive Workload Measurement

EEG/fNIR

• Attention– Declutter

– Alerts

• Executive Function– Function Automation

• Working Memory– Sequencing

• Sensory Input– Multimodal Cueing

Mitigations

Does it work?

Tests at NAVAIR are just getting underway• Specifics

– Detection of cognitive state• Recent results from CogPit are promising• Actual flight tests of EEG workload monitor by

other labs (AFRL, NRC Canada/U. of Iowa)

– Mitigation Strategies• Too early to tell for current CogPit• Needs more focus

Will the user accept it?

You make the call…

Road Ahead

• The full closed-loop technology is not ready– Imaging equipment is bulky, temperamental,

and uncomfortable– Mitigations are still in development

• Bits of the technology could be useful in the near term.

First Step: Hypoxia?

• Poses danger to all high altitude operations• Factor in at least 16 mishaps (3 fatalities) in Naval aviation since 2001

•Naval Aviation has lost 0 TACAIR assets to enemy fire since Desert Storm

Hypoxia

•Currently mitigated with altitude chamber training

•Symptoms are subtle and variable

•Fundamentally strikes at cognitive ability

•Current countermeasure hinges on ability of broken system to diagnose itself

Hypoxia Detection with fNIRS

• fNIRS passes near infrared light through the skull and measures absorption of different wavelengths– Oxygenated and

deoxygenated blood preferentially absorb different wavelengths

– Yields measure of both blood volume and blood oxygenation

• fNIRS potentially provides the basis for a hypoxia and G-LOC warning system

• Open questions:– How reliable would such a system be?– What do we do with the information?

Take Away

• CogPit is a platform to develop cockpits that “read the pilot’s mind” to provide the pilot with the right information at the right time

• The full technology is still a ways off, but subsets of it may be able to provide benefits to aviators much sooner