How can aviation systems be designed for better decision-making?

System engineering may have a wide variety of interpretations... In the aviation regime, it is the 'glue' which connects different disciplines - HW, SW, Mechanical, Algorithms etc., and requires the knowledge of Safety & Regulations, Requirements, Operational/commercial protocols, so that the integration of even the most complex of 'units' with an even more complex algorithms or logic schemes has a basic order which can be verified and tested. An exceptional expert in system engineering and a colleague once described system engineering in 3 letters: S.E.P - Someone Elses Problem. Whenever engineering moves from a unit design to another unit, and the design engineer says it's not his problem, that where the system engineer's work should be.

In my experience, Systems Engineering is fundamentally about connecting the dots. Effective decision-making relies on how well these dots are connected. Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) enhances this process by providing clear traceability of the overall system impact, ensuring that each decision aligns with the broader objectives and constraints of the project. It is important to have an integrated cohesive model that contains all design elements (Mech, EE, other HW, Algos, SW/FW etc.,) that provides a holistic view of the system are loosely connected (subsystems), facilitating better informed and more robust decisions. Decision-making is also linked with DFM and DFT principles, integral in identifying and mitigating risks early.

Any product is a web of interconnected configuration items, parts: hardware and software and documents: design reqmts, production reqmts, Verification docs. A good CM/configuration management system makes all of these configuration items and their associated metadata transparent to all stakeholders so they can make data-based with accurate contextual information. In this way, CM is a foundation for not only good system engineering but every product development discipline. Help your CM/configuration management team invest in the processes & tools that will make your product baseline or configuration indices easily capture & expose all of your product configuration item data & reap the benefits of quicker, better Product development decisions

The interfaces between sub-systems should be designed in a less complex manner, The system requirements should have supporting technical documentations like user manuals, instructions etc. If the system is more complex, it means the supporting documents has the key role to make the stakeholders more efficient in understanding.

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The first thing that comes to mind in aviation is safety of course, however, functionality and usability is also important in airborne systems, such as military systems. Today’s generation grows on today’s computer games which are very intuitive. Therefore the PVI should be very clear and intuitive so that the aircrew can quickly learn how to use the system and not spend 3 weeks training to be able to operate half the system’s functions.

human factor design should encompass as many aspects of manned and unmanned aviation as possible. some times useful to consider a customer service journey or design innovation apporach to tease these factors out.

Aviation systems are highly advanced these days and only the level of it is increasing with the evolution of technology. Doesn't matter how advanced a system becomes it will always need human intervention from time to time or the least a clear oversight of its decision-making. Hence making this interaction human-friendly is very important as any lack of it might cost more than money. In the development process, it is always mandatory to have a dedicated human factors team actively involving pilots and crew for their input when it comes to ease of operation and ergonomics. Various trade-offs are carried out keeping in mind the safety impact and operational environment of the system to keep critical situations under control when occur.

- A Human-Machine interface is designed and accounted for. - When considering a human operator and a systems usability we need to make sure the system is relatively simple to learn to operate and maintain. A human operator needs to trust the machine in order to properly operate it. - Human error can be measured and accounted for in order to minimize mistakes or to improv decision making processes. - Safety regulations can strive to improve on Human error levels.

Just as in software development, Security has moved centrestage from non-functional requirements, Usability and Human Factors rank foremost today in Aviation or any field that has high workload. Decision support systems design should weigh in these factors to overcome challenges in adverse situation awareness conditions.

Dans l’aéronautique militaire, les systèmes modernes d’aide à la décision ne se con?oivent que dans le champs des 5 domaines ( air, terre, mer, espace et Cyber). L’information doit être collectée dans ces 5 domaines, fusionnées, enrichies et redistribuées aux acteurs du champs opérationnel. Elle passe par l’utilisation d’un cloud de combat qui sert d’infrastructure de connectivité. L’aide à la décision est ainsi répartie entre une fonction installée dans le centre de commandement pour traiter l’ensemble des informations issues des 5 domaines et une fonction de bord qui, alimentée par la précédente, fournit une aide à la décision susceptible de soulager la charge du pilote. Une intelligence artificielle en assure la performance

Simple. Take the best and oldest people on the field and first ask them. After that, make a couple of prototypes and study those with the intended users. See if they are doing better with such support. The last and most expensive part will be formal acceptance, and that will have to follow the requirements regarding specific system criticality.

In decision support systems, like checklists, or identifying the correct place, the airborne systems should strive to help as much as possible to the aircrew’s workload. A good example is checklists on the operating screens instead of paper, which also guide you in the correct order of their implementation and how diagnoses the problem. These really help in emergencies and not just in regular operations.

highly important this day and age as we contend with more information like changing weather patterns, more congested airspace for manned and increasingly manned-unmanned airspace.

You should utilize all available sensor inputs to visualize the situation. For example, if you have 2 barometric altimeters, your algorithm should not depend on only one of them in an automatic landing maneuver. If you depend on only one of them when it is broken you can leave the pilots very undesirable position which sometimes can be fatal.

The PSE, product support engineering, is the relevant focal point to receive feedback from the users, and problem solving for field issues. Every report has to be classified for root analysis, and this data is the key to improve or redesign the component or system.

User feedback is an extremely valuable information that should be gathered as soon as possible through both the systems development process and its ongoing operation. This feedback can greatly improve the system's original design at a quick pace by improving different parts of the system, its user interface and the advance aid and support given to the user in order to improve decision making. Generally, both an experienced user and a large sample of testing and validation can shed light from different perspectives, and help improve a system's decision making processes or performance.

User feedback is important in any Dev environment as it helps in so many ways and could reduce the loss of profit when the system is to be deployed for everyday use

Lot of talk goes around User involvement and feedback. However, what is lacking many a times is action on that feedback. A strategy to take those identified improvement items in your backlog, say in an ALM tool like Jira needs to be socialized at all levels. A retrospective at regular cadence that starts with an inspection of actioning that backlog would add immense value than just gathering feedback.

This is where the power of Agile really starts to tie in with Systems Engineering. Agile is all about delivering incremental value to your customers so that you can validate or iterate upon your design. One of the common ideas associated with this is using "Set Based Design". The idea behind Set Based Design is that we can never know everything about our system up front, so we will minimally constrain our system and to keep it as general as possible for as long as possible. This leaves many avenues open so that as we learn more, we can constrain our system accordingly. This is how you continuously improve a system rather than a work culture.

Aviation systems may be designed to support better decision-making and improve safety and performance by adding artificial intelligence-based situational recognition modules that should allow the pilot to control critical processes more quickly and professionally.