CHAP-E: A Plan Execution Assistant for Pilots

Pilots have benefited from ever-increasing and evolving automation techniques for many decades. This automation has allowed pilots to handle increasingly complex aircraft with greater safety, precision, and reduced workload. Unfortunately, it can also lead to misunderstandings and loss of situational awareness. In the face of malfunctions or unexpected events, pilots sometimes have an unclear picture of the situation and what to do next, or must find and follow written procedures that do not take into account all the details of the particular situation. Pilots may also incorrectly assume the mode or state of an automated system and fail to perform certain necessary actions that they assumed an automated system would handle. To help alleviate these issues, we introduce the Cockpit Hierarchical Activity Planning and Execution (CHAP-E) system. CHAP-E provides pilots with guidance toward executing procedures based on the aircraft and automation system’s state and assists pilots through both nominal and off-nominal flight situations.