Analyzing Cockpit Interfaces Using Formal Methods

Modern passenger aircraft are highly automated, and problems at the interface between the automation and the pilot are implicated in several accidents. I use a simple example taken from the autopilot of a widely used aircraft type to demonstrate how formal methods can be used to analyze some aspects of these interfaces, and to expose potential problems. This example serves to illustrate the wider thesis that formal methods can find application in domains outside those traditionally associated with it, provided only that the phenomena of interest can be modeled effectively in discrete mathematics.