Factors (properties, attributes, characteristics) that affect actor behavior. For human actors, these include - knowledge (declarative, procedural) - inherent capabilities and limitations - memory - motivation - workload - level of alertness - fatigue - level of authority - etc. For machine actors, these include - knowledge (declarative and procedural) - functional capabilities and design limitations - operational state (operational, inoperative) - etc.
AgendaManager
A computational aid to facilitate management of the flightdeck agenda.
aircraft control information
Control information from the flightdeck to the aircraft and its subsystems.
aircraft information
Information about the state of the aircraft and its subsystems, such as altitude, fuel flow, etc.
environment information
Information from and about the environment coming to the flightdeck, including ATC queries and clearances.
environmental factors
Factors in the aircraft and flightdeck environments that affect flightdeck activities, including weather conditions, turbulence, illumination, temperature, etc.
flightcrew (human actors)
The human actors on the flightdeck (captain, first officer, second officer) responsible for controlling the aircraft and its subsystems.
flightdeck automation (machine actors)
Machine actors which perform functions otherwise performed by humans, including the autopilot, flight management system, electronic flight control system, EICAS, etc.
flightdeck information
Information that passes from the flightdeck to the environment, including responses and acknowledgements to ATC, etc.
flightdeck resources
Flightdeck components besides the actors (flightcrew and flightdeck automation), including controls and displays.
mission goal
A goal is a desired system behavior and may involve attaining a desired state or maintaining a desired state. The mission goal is the high level goal to be accomplished in a commercial transport aircraft mission, that of safely, legally, and efficiently moving the aircraft and its cargo from the origin airport to the destination airport. In the course of flightdeck activities, the mission goal is decomposed into more specific subgoals.
perform flightdeck activities
Perform the activities of operating a commercial transport aircraft from its flightdeck. These activities are performed by human actors (flightcrew) and machine actors (flightdeck automation) using flightdeck resources (displays, sensors, controls, actuators, radios, and other non-'intelligent' devices). The actors comprise a single, integrated cognitive system.
An IDEF0 diagram (also called a node) consist of boxes and arrows. The boxes represent activities and are labelled with verb phrases. The arrows represent things (matter, energy, information, properties, etc.) that affect or are affected by those activities and are labelled with noun phrases.
The relationship of an arrow to a box represents how the thing is related to the activity. Arrows coming into the left side of the box are called inputs to the activity and represent things that are transformed by the activity. Arrows coming out from the right side of the box are called outputs from the activity and represent the results of transforming the inputs. Arrows coming into the top are called controls and represent things that constrain, limit, or guide the activity. Arrows coming into the bottom are called mechanisms and represent the things that actually perform the activity or are directly used in performing the activity.
Generically, an IDEF0 diagram is read thus: "The activity, performed by mechanisms, transforms its inputs to its outputs, subject to its controls." Following this paradigm, the A-0 diagram above may be read thus: "Perform flightdeck activities is performed by a flightcrew, flightdeck automation, and the AgendaManager (if present), using flightdeck resources. The activity transforms a mission goal, aircraft information, and environment information into aircraft control information (such as control stick and throttle movements) and flightdeck information (such as requests for air traffic control clearances). The activity is constrained by factors related to the human and machine actors (such as human cognitive limitations and flight management system processor speed) and environmental factors (such as illumination).
Associated with each IDEF0 diagram is a glossary which defines all labels used in the diagram.
If an activity may be decomposed into simpler subactivities, its IDEF0 box may be decomposed into sub-boxes. These sub-boxes appear in a separate IDEF0 node.
