Technology Companies Work to Combat Pilot Fatigue

January 6, 2022

Collins Aerospace and Seeing Machines, a leader in eye tracking and driver safety technology, are working together to develop and deliver revolutionary fatigue management technology solutions to increase safety across the aerospace industry. These solutions will sense levels of fatigue and alertness, visible in a pilot’s eyes, to better understand the impact of their workload.

Collins will incorporate Seeing Machine’s advanced eye-tracking optics, embedded processing, human factors, and algorithm expertise in the development of its Pilot Support System (PSS) product line. With flight crews operating demanding schedules, often across multiple time zones, managing fatigue risk is critical. While airlines have robust processes for tracking pilot fatigue, these burden pilots with manual self-evaluation and reporting. This new technology provides another level of safety and higher quality data by using innovative eye and pupil tracking algorithms to sense a pilot’s level of alertness.

“As the aviation industry looks to the future of intelligent aircraft design, understanding the cognitive state of the pilot and crew is paramount,” said Christophe Blanc, vice president & general manager, Business & Regional Avionics for Collins Aerospace. “Pilot workload and wellbeing are key focus areas of our avionics design, and this collaboration will allow us to further support the pilots and their needs.”

Once completed, the PSS technology will be available to aircraft OEMs and operators as both forward-fit and after-market solutions.

Seeing Machines, headquartered in Australia, specializes in vision-based monitoring technology that enable machines to see, understand and assist people. Seeing Machines’ technology portfolio of AI algorithms, embedded processing and optics, power products that need to deliver reliable real-time understanding of vehicle operators. The technology spans the critical measurement of where a driver is looking, through to classification of their cognitive state as it applies to accident risk.

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