Professional Pilot, September 2016

FUTURE AVIONICS We visit Garmin and Rockwell Collins to see what theyre developing More HUDs HGS with combined EVS and voice commands will be coming to higher end GA cockpits I nvesting heavily in the future major avionics companies are now spending research and development R D dollars on advanced flightdeck technologies Advances such as voice recognition software and combined vision systems are all on the roadmap for future business aviation cockpits These systems when compared to the current stateof the art are more revolutionary than evolutionary Each innovation promises to reduce workload while improving safety functionality and providing greater access to airspace and airports The bulk of these new concepts are driven by a massive shift in user expectations generated by the consumer electronics market Accordingly the consumer pilot has become very comfortable interacting with the touchscreen interface available on smartphones and tablets and now 22 PROFESSIONAL PILOT September 2016 wants these features in the cockpit Beyond the swiping pinching and other gestures used to manipulate touchscreens other widely popular technologies include artificial voice commands and interfaces such as Apples Siri As a result from the GA pilot to bizav operator the expectation for new avionics systems is a user interface that relies heavily on touchscreen controls and voice commands Maybe someday air transport aircraft will even catch up Voice commands Rockwell Collins is leading the way in developing future avionics systems Employing over 200 researchers at its Advanced Technology Center in Cedar Rapids IA RC continually fills its R D pipeline with innovated clean sheet designs that often find their way onto the flightdeck Rockwell Collins Senior Engineering Manager Geoffrey Shapiro based at the Advanced Technology Center is one of the researchers leading a project involving avionics controlled by voice commands According to Shapiro R D efforts involving voice recognition software have been ongoing at RC for nearly a decade To date several pilots representing all segments of aviation have operated the system as test subjects on an engineering simulator in Cedar Rapids while company pilots have tried the software on a flight test aircraft From these experiences Shapiro and his team learned that each segment of aviation has unique requirements for a voice activated system As an example most helicopter operations require extensive hands on visual maneuvers while GA and business aviation aircraft are often flown single pilot According to Shapiro from these tests an operation involving high workload scenarios such as a single pilot turboprop aircraft or helicopter would benefit greatly from this system as it is similar to having a virtual copilot Likewise air transport or larger crewed bizjets would have different needs By Stuart Lau ATP FE CFII Airbus A300 600 Boeing 747 747 400 757 767 Canadair CRJ Saab 340 Rockwell Collins vision for the future is an integrated flightdeck that combines technologies such as infrared and SVS on an HGS display along with voice activated features that complement traditional tactile controls Photos courtesy Rockwell Collins