• Took active part in development of Pilots' Associate (Electronic Co-Pilot) Independent Research and Development project.
  • Developed CRT and Flat Panel display graphics and hardware/software interfaces in C and 68000 Assembly; Core was used as Graphics Standards.
  • Developed Touch Panel hardware/software interfaces in C.
  • Developed Speech Recognition/Speech Synthesis hardware/software interfaces in C.
  • Developed a series of five Artificial Intelligence software managers using ART and LISP, with C wrappers to integrate into the overall system.
  • Planned system integration of the above sub-systems into a cockpit mock-up. Wrote all necessary communications drivers and simple-file-based 'shared database' software in C.
  • Trained personnel in computer use.
  • System Manager of group's computers.

Finally, a job I can talk about... Unlike most of my career, this was a project that was highly publicized and was published in various magazines and books.

The Electronic CoPilot, Independent Research and Development Project (ECOP IRAD) was one of the first projects to do research for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Pilot's Associate Program. It was to research the integration of advanced technologies into airborne avionics systems, to make the task of piloting the fighters of the future easier.

Pilots today [1986] are being confounded by the number of things that have to be tracked during a mission. Modern sensor and avionics systems often produce massive amounts of data that must be integrated by the pilots in real-time. And with modern aircraft's speeds, the length of time available for situation assessment and decision making is less than two minutes. Well within this two-minute time frame, a pilot must detect and identify an approaching aircraft, decide on suitable strategy and tactics, carry out the tactics, and employ his weapons while coordinating with his wingmen and other aircraft.

Under some combat conditions, even the best pilots become over-loaded and may overlook critical warning indicators. An integrated system like the one envisioned in Pilot's Associate could be of great help to pilots by keeping track of everything inside and outside the airplane. That will allow pilots to focus their attention on their mission with the knowledge that the system will alert them to warnings they might not have noticed under the pressure.

Machine intelligence has advanced to the point that it is now possible for computers to emulate human reasoning to a limited extent. Part of the ECOP IRAD was to study the usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to offload pilot workload and help him with decision making. Various AI expert systems were written to offload the pilot in aircraft identification, situation assessment, sensor management, tactics, and mission planning.

The ECOP IRAD also ran various tests on interaction between the pilot and the aircraft systems. Tests were run employing speech synthesis and recognition. Different displays were tested, including flat panel technologies, 3-D tactical displays, and touch panel (i.e. Finger On Glass (FOG)) input.

PUBLICATIONS

While far from an all-inclusive list, some of the publications in which this project was discussed in include:

• Lockheed Horizons - Issue #18 , August 1985
  "The Lockheed Cybernetics Console: An Artificial Intelligence Research Tool"
• Lockheed Horizons - Issue #22, December 1986
  "The Electronic Copilot - A Look At The Future Of Cockpit Automation"
• Lockheed Life - Issue Three/1987
  "DARPA's Search For New Ideas"
• Lockheed-California - Employment Brochure - 1987
• Aviation Week and Space Technology - August 17th, 1987
  "Lockheed Developing Electronic Copilot In Support Of ATF Program Effort"
• Flight International - 5th September 1987
  "ATF and the silicon copilot"

• Video: "The Electronic Copilot, The Future of Cockpit Automation" - 1987
  Download available on request

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The accomplishments under the ECOP IRAD were not solely my accomplishments, but those of a dedicated team effort; I'd like to acknowledge my fellow engineers to the success of this effort:

• Rod Barbo, Cockpit Mechanical Design;
• Larry Bialecki, Cockpit Integration (H/W);
• Chris Blay, Cockpit Integration Assistant;
• Steve Dundore, Knowledge Expert/Associate Investigator;
• Karl Goldshmidt, Systems Software/Associate Investigator;
• Patty McKay, Speech Recognition Expert;
• Bob Oliphant, Graphics Software;
• Anthony Palmieri, Group Lead/Principal Investigator;
• and Arlen Stone, Speech Recognition Assistant.