PREDICTIVE AIDS IN AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: SITUATION AWARENESS AND MENTAL WORKLOAD IMPLICATIONS

This paper looks at situation awareness and mental workload as it relates to the Free Flight concept. Free Flight is a fairly recent innovation that is aimed among other things at giving pilots more control over real time changes to flight paths and has raised many concerns amongst controllers regarding safety. A principal concern is a loss of the controller's picture that could result from aircraft deviating from flight plans without prior controller consent. Such a loss may compromise the ability of the controller to interven in the event that separation is lost between aircraft. This paper identifies potential adverse effects that the implementation of the shared separation concept may have on controller performance and proposes a modified interface that would aid in giving predictability back to the controller. A prototype interface is currently being developed at the University of Guelph and is representative of a combined data link and conflict detection aid that may be implemented as the progression is made towards transferring control from the ground to the air.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This article is from ADA41233 Europe Chapter of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Meeting.
• Corporate Authors:

  University of Guelph, Canada

  Department of Psychology
  Guelph, Ontario  Canada  N1G 2W1

  N/A

  ,   United States 
• Authors:
  • Nunes, A
  • Matthews, M L
• Publication Date: 2002-9-12

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 4 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air traffic control; Air traffic controllers; Aircraft separation; Airline pilots; Conflict management; Detection and identification; Flight paths; Free flight (Air traffic control); Human factors; Interfaces; Prototypes; Real time control; Workload
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Bridges and other structures; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00960947
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 18 2003 12:00AM