Nichols Martin
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has selected Northrop Grumman to prototype an artificial intelligence technology that would integrate with augmented reality platform to assist helicopter pilots in performing their tasks.
The company will work with the University of Central Florida to develop the Operator and Context Adaptive Reasoning Intuitive Assistant under DARPA’s Perceptually-enabled Task Guidance program.
PTG aims to help pilots execute mental and physical tasks. The AI assistant prototyping effort seeks to address the situational awareness gaps of existing alert systems that can cause cognitive burdens on pilots.
OCARINA is envisioned to provide auditory and visual guidance via an AR headset worn by a UH-60 Blackhawk pilot. The effort seeks to deliver wearable sensors through which an AI assistant, such as OCARINA, would know that the wearer is perceiving.
Erin Cherry, senior autonomy program manager at Northrop, said the prototype is intended to teach new tasks, help in addressing errors, accelerate task completion and prevent catastrophic events.
