DARWIN at AIAA SciTech 2026: Pilot Task Load Prediction for Human–AI Teaming
The DARWIN team presented recent work from the project at AIAA SciTech 2026, held from 12 to 16 January 2026 in Orlando, Florida (USA). SciTech is an international forum that brings together aerospace researchers from industry and academia to exchange advances in aviation and space technologies.
At the conference, Fabian Morscheck from the DLR Institute of Flight Guidance presented a paper entitled “Pilot task load prediction for human AI teaming”. The paper addresses the challenge of varying pilot task load throughout a flight, with high demands during phases such as take-off and landing and lower demands during cruise. Within DARWIN, DLR developed a system to allocate tasks between automation and the pilot in a way that avoids both overload and underutilization.
A central component of this system is the Task Load Monitor (TLM). It predicts the expected future task load along a planned flight trajectory, defines acceptable task load levels within the system context, and supports task allocation between pilot and automation.
The paper explains how task load is used within DARWIN, how future task load is calculated for a specific flight, and reports on the first successful real-flight validation of the complete system in DARWIN.
The full paper is available here: https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2026-0708
Photo: DLR
