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Navy Program Aims to Boost Aircraft Safety, Reduce Costs
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| An F/A-18 Hornet prepares to launch. (Photo courtesy U.S. Navy) | In the exciting world of military aviation, pilots must make split-second decisions based on their awareness of the current situation, as well as information gathered from previous missions. On the ground, maintenance workers need accurate and timely information to optimize an aircraft’s flight readiness. A team of CSC technologists plays a key role in supporting a U.S. Navy quality assurance program that uses the data recorded on every flight to help improve safety, training and the fleet’s operational readiness.
Modern military aircraft are equipped with sophisticated onboard technology that records a pilot’s every move. A key challenge is how best to leverage this data so it can be used to improve a pilot’s performance and, ultimately, reduce the rate of mishaps. In 2004, the Navy launched the Military Flight Operations Quality Assurance (MFOQA) Demonstration Project to identify the best ways to integrate and analyze flight data. An experienced team of CSC experts developed highly robust algorithms for automated data analysis and designed an integrated reporting system that provides critical information to all levels of users in the Navy’s aircraft community.
Modeled after a successful civil aviation quality assurance program, the MFOQA data analysis system proved much more difficult to develop due to the wide range of factors pilots encounter in a typical military flight, such as air combat maneuvering and landing on an aircraft carrier. Dr. David Haas, who served as the Navy’s technical lead for the MFOQA Demonstration Project, says, "What the CSC team did for us was develop a technical foundation for analysis and advanced techniques that produced good, accurate results fulfilling the need to process the data effectively and efficiently."
Robust results
The major impetus for the MFOQA program was a directive issued by the U.S. Secretary of Defense to reduce the number of aviation-related accidents. Haas says, "Our goal was to take the data already recorded on an aircraft and use that information to improve safety and mission effectiveness." Haas says the key challenge for the CSC team was to develop robust algorithms and database processes that would allow the Navy to automate the analysis of a massive amount of in-flight data.
Miguel Morales, who served as CSC’s lead scientist and program manager on the project, says his team took a proactive approach to developing the technology. "The core of the innovation is that we were able to develop algorithms that are robust enough to take on all of the difficult situations," he says. For example, where important aerodynamic parameters are not yet available, the algorithms recognize this situation and use alternative logic to identify maneuvers of interest such as autorotations. Morales and his team developed algorithms that provide a logical sequence of events and place those events, which are then placed into the proper context of an aircraft’s flight history.
A diverse set of aircraft types were part of the Navy’s demonstration, including the F/A-18 Hornet strike fighter, the SH-60 Seahawk helicopter and the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. Since the scope of the program was so comprehensive, the CSC team was challenged to design a development infrastructure flexible enough to work with different monitoring systems, while producing user-friendly analysis reports for a wide variety of groups, ranging from maintenance workers to commanders.
Safety first
The chief goal of the MFOQA program is increased safety. Navy pilots can improve their skills and reduce errors by getting instant feedback in the mission debrief using CSC-designed portable analysis modules. Haas says the data gathered and analyzed "provides a better awareness of how the aircraft is being operated and flown. Having that helps with resource management and pilot training. It also improves safety by detecting whether the aircraft is being flown in accordance with standard operating procedures and within limits."
CSC’s approach for automated analysis was based on artificial intelligence; the algorithms were developed to mirror the basic brain functions of cognition and examination. Morales says, "We wanted to make use of all the information recorded on aircraft missions and see where things could go wrong. In this way, indicators of potential mishaps could be identified and corrective actions taken before an accident occurs."
In addition to improvements in safety and training, the MFOQA program provides the Navy with other important benefits, including lower maintenance costs and increased readiness. Morales concludes, "If we look at the big picture, by having all of this information, by knowing exactly how the aircraft is operated, you acquire what is called ’situational awareness’ of your fleet, which is one of the desired Navy capabilities for the warfighter in the 21st century."
Situational awareness provides the ability to perceive, comprehend, respond, and predict so that fleet personnel can recognize potential hazards and take appropriate action to reduce the likelihood of a mishap. Based on the success of the demonstration project, the Navy is currently expanding the MFOQA program across its entire fleet, with the CSC team continuing to support these efforts.
The CSC team on the MFOQA Demonstration Project included Morales, Shawn Dennison, Darren Braynard and Debasish Ray. For their efforts, they have been named recipients of the 2007 Award for Technical Excellence, CSC’s most prestigious form of recognition.
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