The paper on Cognitive HMI2 for Avionics and Air Traffic Management Systems (authored by Yixiang Lim, Alessandro Gardi, Neta Ezer, Trevor Kistan and Roberto Sabatini) was ranked the best overall and was awarded the best paper prize at the 5th IEEE International Workshop on Metrology for Aerospace (MetroAeroSpace). MetroAeroSpace focuses on aerospace sensors and measurement technology, and was held in Rome, Italy from 20th to 22nd June 2018. The workshop attracted a significant number of scientific contributions from all over the world across a wide range of disciplines, and keynotes from prominent scientists from NASA and ESA. Out of 130-plus papers presented at the workshop, the best paper award was conferred to “the most outstanding paper in terms of technical merit, originality, potential impact on the field, clarity of written content and quality of presentation”. The Cognitive HMI2 concept featured in the award-winning paper revolves around the real-time sensing of human cognitive states to drive intelligent adaptations in system behaviour and was conceived by Prof Rob Sabatini to meet the evolving needs of trusted autonomous systems in the civil and military aerospace sectors. The Cognitive HMI2 research has attracted significant interest from both industry and academia, as demonstrated by the existing research projects with key industry partners of the calibre of Thales Australia and Northrop Grumman Corporation (USA), as well as the Australian Defence Science and Technology (DST) Group. This research opens up a number of opportunities for the development of practical CHMI2 systems for trusted autonomous aerospace and defence operations. Applications currently being considered include single-pilot control of multiple unmanned aircraft (a concept known as “One-to-many”), commercial airliner Single Pilot Operations (SiPO), as well as Air Traffic Management (ATM) and UAS Traffic Management (UTM).
