Performance of an Automated System for Control of Traffic in Terminal Airspace

Science.gov (United States)

Nikoleris, Tasos; Erzberger, Heinz; Paielli, Russell A.; Chu, Yung-Cheng

2016-01-01

This paper examines the performance of a system that performs automated conflict resolution and arrival scheduling for aircraft in the terminal airspace around major airports. Such a system has the potential to perform separation assurance and arrival sequencing tasks that are currently handled manually by human controllers. The performance of the system is tested against several simulated traffic scenarios that are characterized by the rate at which air traffic is metered into the terminal airspace. For each traffic scenario, the levels of performance that are examined include: number of conflicts predicted to occur, types of resolution maneuver used to resolve predicted conflicts, and the amount of delay for all flights. The simulation results indicate that the percentage of arrivals that required a maneuver that changes the flight's horizontal route ranged between 11% and 15% in all traffic scenarios. That finding has certain implications if this automated system were to be implemented simply as a decision support tool. It is also found that arrival delay due to purely wake vortex separation requirements on final approach constituted only between 29% and 35% of total arrival delay, while the remaining major portion of it is mainly due to delay back propagation effects.

Designing Scenarios for Controller-in-the-Loop Air Traffic Simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Kupfer, Michael; Mercer, Joey; Cabrall, Chris; Homola, Jeff; Callantine, Todd

2013-01-01

Within the Human Factors Division at NASA Ames Research Center the Airspace Operations Laboratory (AOL) is developing advanced automation concepts that help to transform the National Airspace System into NextGen, the Next Generation Air Transportation System. High-fidelity human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulations are used as a means to investigate and develop roles, responsibilities, support tools, and requirements for human operators and automation. This paper describes the traffic scenario design process and strategies as used by AOL researchers. Details are presented on building scenarios for specific simulation objectives using various design strategies. A focus is set on creating scenarios based on recorded real world traffic for terminal-area simulations.

Human-system safety methods for development of advanced air traffic management systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nelson, William R.

1999-01-01

The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) is supporting the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the development of advanced air traffic management (ATM) systems as part of the Advanced Air Transportation Technologies program. As part of this program INEEL conducted a survey of human-system safety methods that have been applied to complex technical systems, to identify lessons learned from these applications and provide recommendations for the development of advanced ATM systems. The domains that were surveyed included offshore oil and gas, commercial nuclear power, commercial aviation, and military. The survey showed that widely different approaches are used in these industries, and that the methods used range from very high-level, qualitative approaches to very detailed quantitative methods such as human reliability analysis (HRA) and probabilistic safety assessment (PSA). In addition, the industries varied widely in how effectively they incorporate human-system safety assessment in the design, development, and testing of complex technical systems. In spite of the lack of uniformity in the approaches and methods used, it was found that methods are available that can be combined and adapted to support the development of advanced air traffic management systems (author) (ml)

Optimal Control of Hybrid Systems in Air Traffic Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Kamgarpour, Maryam

Growing concerns over the scalability of air traffic operations, air transportation fuel emissions and prices, as well as the advent of communication and sensing technologies motivate improvements to the air traffic management system. To address such improvements, in this thesis a hybrid dynamical model as an abstraction of the air traffic system is considered. Wind and hazardous weather impacts are included using a stochastic model. This thesis focuses on the design of algorithms for verification and control of hybrid and stochastic dynamical systems and the application of these algorithms to air traffic management problems. In the deterministic setting, a numerically efficient algorithm for optimal control of hybrid systems is proposed based on extensions of classical optimal control techniques. This algorithm is applied to optimize the trajectory of an Airbus 320 aircraft in the presence of wind and storms. In the stochastic setting, the verification problem of reaching a target set while avoiding obstacles (reach-avoid) is formulated as a two-player game to account for external agents' influence on system dynamics. The solution approach is applied to air traffic conflict prediction in the presence of stochastic wind. Due to the uncertainty in forecasts of the hazardous weather, and hence the unsafe regions of airspace for aircraft flight, the reach-avoid framework is extended to account for stochastic target and safe sets. This methodology is used to maximize the probability of the safety of aircraft paths through hazardous weather. Finally, the problem of modeling and optimization of arrival air traffic and runway configuration in dense airspace subject to stochastic weather data is addressed. This problem is formulated as a hybrid optimal control problem and is solved with a hierarchical approach that decouples safety and performance. As illustrated with this problem, the large scale of air traffic operations motivates future work on the efficient

A hierarchical framework for air traffic control

Science.gov (United States)

Roy, Kaushik

Air travel in recent years has been plagued by record delays, with over $8 billion in direct operating costs being attributed to 100 million flight delay minutes in 2007. Major contributing factors to delay include weather, congestion, and aging infrastructure; the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) aims to alleviate these delays through an upgrade of the air traffic control system. Changes to large-scale networked systems such as air traffic control are complicated by the need for coordinated solutions over disparate temporal and spatial scales. Individual air traffic controllers must ensure aircraft maintain safe separation locally with a time horizon of seconds to minutes, whereas regional plans are formulated to efficiently route flows of aircraft around weather and congestion on the order of every hour. More efficient control algorithms that provide a coordinated solution are required to safely handle a larger number of aircraft in a fixed amount of airspace. Improved estimation algorithms are also needed to provide accurate aircraft state information and situational awareness for human controllers. A hierarchical framework is developed to simultaneously solve the sometimes conflicting goals of regional efficiency and local safety. Careful attention is given in defining the interactions between the layers of this hierarchy. In this way, solutions to individual air traffic problems can be targeted and implemented as needed. First, the regional traffic flow management problem is posed as an optimization problem and shown to be NP-Hard. Approximation methods based on aggregate flow models are developed to enable real-time implementation of algorithms that reduce the impact of congestion and adverse weather. Second, the local trajectory design problem is solved using a novel slot-based sector model. This model is used to analyze sector capacity under varying traffic patterns, providing a more comprehensive understanding of how increased automation

The Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) advanced automation project

Science.gov (United States)

Dewberry, Brandon S.; Carnes, Ray

1990-01-01

The objective of the environmental control and life support system (ECLSS) Advanced Automation Project is to influence the design of the initial and evolutionary Space Station Freedom Program (SSFP) ECLSS toward a man-made closed environment in which minimal flight and ground manpower is needed. Another objective includes capturing ECLSS design and development knowledge future missions. Our approach has been to (1) analyze the SSFP ECLSS, (2) envision as our goal a fully automated evolutionary environmental control system - an augmentation of the baseline, and (3) document the advanced software systems, hooks, and scars which will be necessary to achieve this goal. From this analysis, prototype software is being developed, and will be tested using air and water recovery simulations and hardware subsystems. In addition, the advanced software is being designed, developed, and tested using automation software management plan and lifecycle tools. Automated knowledge acquisition, engineering, verification and testing tools are being used to develop the software. In this way, we can capture ECLSS development knowledge for future use develop more robust and complex software, provide feedback to the knowledge based system tool community, and ensure proper visibility of our efforts.

Air Traffic Control Tools Assessment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tomáš Noskievič

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Undoubtedly air transport in today’s world wouldn’t be able to exist without any air traffic control service. As the air transport has been coming through major changes and it has been expanding, it is assumed that its volume will be doubled in the next 15 years. Air traffic control uses strictly organised procedures to ensure safe course of air operations. With the skies covered with more airplanes every year, new tools must be introduced to allow the controllers to manage this rising amount of flying aircraft and to keep the air transport safe. This paper provides a comprehensive and organized material, which describes the newest tools and systems used by air traffic control officers. It proposes improvements for further research and development of ATC tools.

Air Traffic Controller Acceptability of Unmanned Aircraft System Detect-and-Avoid Thresholds

Science.gov (United States)

Mueller, Eric R.; Isaacson, Douglas R.; Stevens, Derek

2016-01-01

A human-in-the-loop experiment was conducted with 15 retired air traffic controllers to investigate two research questions: (a) what procedures are appropriate for the use of unmanned aircraft system (UAS) detect-and-avoid systems, and (b) how long in advance of a predicted close encounter should pilots request or execute a separation maneuver. The controller participants managed a busy Oakland air route traffic control sector with mixed commercial/general aviation and manned/UAS traffic, providing separation services, miles-in-trail restrictions and issuing traffic advisories. Controllers filled out post-scenario and post-simulation questionnaires, and metrics were collected on the acceptability of procedural options and temporal thresholds. The states of aircraft were also recorded when controllers issued traffic advisories. Subjective feedback indicated a strong preference for pilots to request maneuvers to remain well clear from intruder aircraft rather than deviate from their IFR clearance. Controllers also reported that maneuvering at 120 seconds until closest point of approach (CPA) was too early; maneuvers executed with less than 90 seconds until CPA were more acceptable. The magnitudes of the requested maneuvers were frequently judged to be too large, indicating a possible discrepancy between the quantitative UAS well clear standard and the one employed subjectively by manned pilots. The ranges between pairs of aircraft and the times to CPA at which traffic advisories were issued were used to construct empirical probability distributions of those metrics. Given these distributions, we propose that UAS pilots wait until an intruder aircraft is approximately 80 seconds to CPA or 6 nmi away before requesting a maneuver, and maneuver immediately if the intruder is within 60 seconds and 4 nmi. These thresholds should make the use of UAS detect and avoid systems compatible with current airspace procedures and controller expectations.

Using Automated Planning for Traffic Signals Control

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matija Gulić

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Solving traffic congestions represents a high priority issue in many big cities. Traditional traffic control systems are mainly based on pre-programmed, reactive and local techniques. This paper presents an autonomic system that uses automated planning techniques instead. These techniques are easily configurable and modified, and can reason about the future implications of actions that change the default traffic lights behaviour. The proposed implemented system includes some autonomic properties, since it monitors the current traffic state, detects if the system is degrading its performance, sets up new sets of goals to be achieved by the planner, triggers the planner that generates plans with control actions, and executes the selected courses of actions. The obtained results in several artificial and real world data-based simulation scenarios show that the proposed system can efficiently solve traffic congestion.

Evaluation of High Density Air Traffic Operations with Automation for Separation Assurance, Weather Avoidance and Schedule Conformance

Science.gov (United States)

Prevot, Thomas; Mercer, Joey S.; Martin, Lynne Hazel; Homola, Jeffrey R.; Cabrall, Christopher D.; Brasil, Connie L.

2011-01-01

In this paper we discuss the development and evaluation of our prototype technologies and procedures for far-term air traffic control operations with automation for separation assurance, weather avoidance and schedule conformance. Controller-in-the-loop simulations in the Airspace Operations Laboratory at the NASA Ames Research Center in 2010 have shown very promising results. We found the operations to provide high airspace throughput, excellent efficiency and schedule conformance. The simulation also highlighted areas for improvements: Short-term conflict situations sometimes resulted in separation violations, particularly for transitioning aircraft in complex traffic flows. The combination of heavy metering and growing weather resulted in an increased number of aircraft penetrating convective weather cells. To address these shortcomings technologies and procedures have been improved and the operations are being re-evaluated with the same scenarios. In this paper we will first describe the concept and technologies for automating separation assurance, weather avoidance, and schedule conformance. Second, the results from the 2010 simulation will be reviewed. We report human-systems integration aspects, safety and efficiency results as well as airspace throughput, workload, and operational acceptability. Next, improvements will be discussed that were made to address identified shortcomings. We conclude that, with further refinements, air traffic control operations with ground-based automated separation assurance can routinely provide currently unachievable levels of traffic throughput in the en route airspace.

CATS-based Air Traffic Controller Agents

Science.gov (United States)

Callantine, Todd J.

2002-01-01

This report describes intelligent agents that function as air traffic controllers. Each agent controls traffic in a single sector in real time; agents controlling traffic in adjoining sectors can coordinate to manage an arrival flow across a given meter fix. The purpose of this research is threefold. First, it seeks to study the design of agents for controlling complex systems. In particular, it investigates agent planning and reactive control functionality in a dynamic environment in which a variety perceptual and decision making skills play a central role. It examines how heuristic rules can be applied to model planning and decision making skills, rather than attempting to apply optimization methods. Thus, the research attempts to develop intelligent agents that provide an approximation of human air traffic controller behavior that, while not based on an explicit cognitive model, does produce task performance consistent with the way human air traffic controllers operate. Second, this research sought to extend previous research on using the Crew Activity Tracking System (CATS) as the basis for intelligent agents. The agents use a high-level model of air traffic controller activities to structure the control task. To execute an activity in the CATS model, according to the current task context, the agents reference a 'skill library' and 'control rules' that in turn execute the pattern recognition, planning, and decision-making required to perform the activity. Applying the skills enables the agents to modify their representation of the current control situation (i.e., the 'flick' or 'picture'). The updated representation supports the next activity in a cycle of action that, taken as a whole, simulates air traffic controller behavior. A third, practical motivation for this research is to use intelligent agents to support evaluation of new air traffic control (ATC) methods to support new Air Traffic Management (ATM) concepts. Current approaches that use large, human

Air traffic control activity increases attention capacity in air traffic controllers.

Science.gov (United States)

Ribas, Valdenilson Ribeiro; Martins, Hugo André de Lima; Amorim, Gutemberg Guerra; Ribas, Renata de Melo Guerra; de Almeida, Cláudia Ângela Vilela; Ribas, Valéria Ribeiro; de Vasconcelos, Carlos Augusto Carvalho; Lima, Murilo Duarte Costa; Sougey, Everton Botelho; de Castro, Raul Manhães

2010-01-01

Air traffic controllers simultaneously develop complex and multiple tasks in the course of their activities. In this context, concern is raised over the high level of attention needed by these professionals which can ultimately be affected by stress and fatigue. The objective of this study was to assess attention level in air traffic controllers (ATCo). 45 flight protection professionals were evaluated, comprising 30 ATCo, subdivided into ATCo with ten or more years in the profession (ATCo≥10, n=15) and ATCo with less than ten years in the profession (ATCo air traffic control activity after ten years may be associated with a high level of attention.

Building Strategic Conformal Automation for Air Traffic Control Using Machine Learning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Regtuit, Robert; Borst, C.; van Kampen, E.; van Paassen, M.M.

2018-01-01

Acceptance of automation has been a bottleneck for successful introduction of automation in Air Trac Control. Strategic conformal automation has been proven to increase automation acceptance, by creating a better match between automation and operator decision-making. In this paper strategic

Impact of Automation Support on the Conflict Resolution Task in a Human-in-the-Loop Air Traffic Control Simulation

Science.gov (United States)

Mercer, Joey; Gomez, Ashley; Gabets, Cynthia; Bienert, Nancy; Edwards, Tamsyn; Martin, Lynne; Gujral, Vimmy; Homola, Jeffrey

2016-01-01

To determine the capabilities and limitations of human operators and automation in separation assurance roles, the second of three Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) part-task studies investigated air traffic controllers ability to detect and resolve conflicts under varying task sets, traffic densities, and run lengths. Operations remained within a single sector, staffed by a single controller, and explored, among other things, the controllers responsibility for conflict resolution with or without their involvement in the conflict detection task. Furthermore, these conditions were examined across two different traffic densities; 1x (current-day traffic) and a 20 increase above current-day traffic levels (1.2x). Analyses herein offer an examination of the conflict resolution strategies employed by controllers. In particular, data in the form of elapsed time between conflict detection and conflict resolution are used to assess if, and how, the controllers involvement in the conflict detection task affected the way in which they resolved traffic conflicts.

Design and Operational Evaluation of the Traffic Management Advisor at the Ft. Worth Air Route Traffic Control Center

Science.gov (United States)

Swenson, Harry N.; Vincent, Danny; Tobias, Leonard (Technical Monitor)

1997-01-01

NASA and the FAA have designed and developed and an automation tool known as the Traffic Management Advisor (TMA). The system was operationally evaluated at the Ft. Worth Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC). The TMA is a time-based strategic planning tool that provides Traffic Management Coordinators and En Route Air Traffic Controllers the ability to efficiently optimize the capacity of a demand impacted airport. The TMA consists of trajectory prediction, constraint-based runway scheduling, traffic flow visualization and controllers advisories. The TMA was used and operationally evaluated for forty-one rush traffic periods during a one month period in the Summer of 1996. The evaluations included all shifts of air traffic operations as well as periods of inclement weather. Performance data was collected for engineering and human factor analysis and compared with similar operations without the TMA. The engineering data indicates that the operations with the TMA show a one to two minute per aircraft delay reduction during rush periods. The human factor data indicate a perceived reduction in en route controller workload as well as an increase in job satisfaction. Upon completion of the evaluation, the TMA has become part of the normal operations at the Ft. Worth ARTCC.

14 CFR Special Federal Aviation... - Air Traffic Control System Emergency Operation

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Air Traffic Control System Emergency Operation Federal Special Federal Aviation Regulation No. 60 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (CONTINUED) AIR TRAFFIC AND GENERAL OPERATING RULES GENERAL OPERATING AND FLIGHT RULES Pt. 91, SFAR No. 60...

DEVELOPMENT OF THE AUTOMATED ROAD TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS IN MINSK AS PART OF THE INTELLECTUAL CITY TRANSPORT SYSTEM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. V. Kapskiy

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The results of the analysis of Minsk city transport system performance. It is shown that the growth of car ownership has caused a number of problems, among which the low-speed communication, bad driving modes, the presence of elevated levels of congestion and accidents. The corresponding figures for accidents in Minsk and some cities in the world that allow to characterize the transport system of the city of Minsk, as satisfactory. To improve the system and improve the quality of traffic necessary to create intelligent transport system of the city of Minsk. Intelligent Transportation System, being a global trend, enables dramatically improve road quality. Automated traffic control system and other subsystems as part of the Intelligent Transportation Systems are tools for achieving the goals for improving the safety and comfort of road users. It is proposed as a base for its creation to choose an automated traffic control system, which has a corresponding functional, structural, organizational and institutional provisions for its development. The technological requirements for the functioning of an integrated system, which relate to the level of efficiency, including accidents on sections of the road network included in the created system. Modernization of the automated traffic control system and its transformation into an intelligent transport system will reduce emergency, economic and environmental, and social costs in the road traffic is not less than 15 % from their current level, despite the steady growth of car ownership in the city. It is planned to create a complete intelligent transportation system.

Advanced Air Transportation Technologies Project, Final Document Collection

Science.gov (United States)

Mogford, Richard H.; Wold, Sheryl (Editor)

2008-01-01

This CD ROM contains a compilation of the final documents of the Advanced Air Transportation Technologies (AAIT) project, which was an eight-year (1996 to 2004), $400M project managed by the Airspace Systems Program office, which was part of the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. AAIT focused on developing advanced automation tools and air traffic management concepts that would help improve the efficiency of the National Airspace System, while maintaining or enhancing safety. The documents contained in the CD are final reports on AAIT tasks that serve to document the project's accomplishments over its eight-year term. Documents include information on: Advanced Air Transportation Technologies, Autonomous Operations Planner, Collaborative Arrival Planner, Distributed Air/Ground Traffic Management Concept Elements 5, 6, & 11, Direct-To, Direct-To Technology Transfer, Expedite Departure Path, En Route Data Exchange, Final Approach Spacing Tool - (Active and Passive), Multi-Center Traffic Management Advisor, Multi Center Traffic Management Advisor Technology Transfer, Surface Movement Advisor, Surface Management System, Surface Management System Technology Transfer and Traffic Flow Management Research & Development.

Airport Information Retrieval System (AIRS) System Design

Science.gov (United States)

1974-07-01

This report presents the system design for a prototype air traffic flow control automation system developed for the FAA's Systems Command Center. The design was directed toward the immediate automation of airport data for use in traffic load predicti...

5 CFR 842.207 - Air traffic controllers.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Air traffic controllers. 842.207 Section 842.207 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT (CONTINUED) CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) FEDERAL EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT SYSTEM-BASIC ANNUITY Eligibility § 842.207 Air traffic controllers. (a) An employee who separates from...

Benefits of Imperfect Conflict Resolution Advisory Aids for Future Air Traffic Control.

Science.gov (United States)

Trapsilawati, Fitri; Wickens, Christopher D; Qu, Xingda; Chen, Chun-Hsien

2016-11-01

The aim of this study was to examine the human-automation interaction issues and the interacting factors in the context of conflict detection and resolution advisory (CRA) systems. The issues of imperfect automation in air traffic control (ATC) have been well documented in previous studies, particularly in conflict-alerting systems. The extent to which the prior findings can be applied to an integrated conflict detection and resolution system in future ATC remains unknown. Twenty-four participants were evenly divided into two groups corresponding to a medium- and a high-traffic density condition, respectively. In each traffic density condition, participants were instructed to perform simulated ATC tasks under four automation conditions, including reliable, unreliable with short time allowance to secondary conflict (TAS), unreliable with long TAS, and manual conditions. Dependent variables accounted for conflict resolution performance, workload, situation awareness, and trust in and dependence on the CRA aid, respectively. Imposing the CRA automation did increase performance and reduce workload as compared with manual performance. The CRA aid did not decrease situation awareness. The benefits of the CRA aid were manifest even when it was imperfectly reliable and were apparent across traffic loads. In the unreliable blocks, trust in the CRA aid was degraded but dependence was not influenced, yet the performance was not adversely affected. The use of CRA aid would benefit ATC operations across traffic densities. CRA aid offers benefits across traffic densities, regardless of its imperfection, as long as its reliability level is set above the threshold of assistance, suggesting its application for future ATC. © 2016, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Human factors issues in the use of artificial intelligence in air traffic control. October 1990 Workshop

Science.gov (United States)

Hockaday, Stephen; Kuhlenschmidt, Sharon (Editor)

1991-01-01

The objective of the workshop was to explore the role of human factors in facilitating the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) to advanced air traffic control (ATC) automation concepts. AI is an umbrella term which is continually expanding to cover a variety of techniques where machines are performing actions taken based upon dynamic, external stimuli. AI methods can be implemented using more traditional programming languages such as LISP or PROLOG, or they can be implemented using state-of-the-art techniques such as object-oriented programming, neural nets (hardware or software), and knowledge based expert systems. As this technology advances and as increasingly powerful computing platforms become available, the use of AI to enhance ATC systems can be realized. Substantial efforts along these lines are already being undertaken at the FAA Technical Center, NASA Ames Research Center, academic institutions, industry, and elsewhere. Although it is clear that the technology is ripe for bringing computer automation to ATC systems, the proper scope and role of automation are not at all apparent. The major concern is how to combine human controllers with computer technology. A wide spectrum of options exists, ranging from using automation only to provide extra tools to augment decision making by human controllers to turning over moment-by-moment control to automated systems and using humans as supervisors and system managers. Across this spectrum, it is now obvious that the difficulties that occur when tying human and automated systems together must be resolved so that automation can be introduced safely and effectively. The focus of the workshop was to further explore the role of injecting AI into ATC systems and to identify the human factors that need to be considered for successful application of the technology to present and future ATC systems.

Automated mixed traffic vehicle control and scheduling study

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, T. K. C.; Chon, K.

1976-01-01

The operation and the expected performance of a proposed automatic guideway transit system which uses low speed automated mixed traffic vehicles (AMTVs) were analyzed. Vehicle scheduling and headway control policies were evaluated with a transit system simulation model. The effect of mixed traffic interference on the average vehicle speed was examined with a vehicle pedestrian interface model. Control parameters regulating vehicle speed were evaluated for safe stopping and passenger comfort. Some preliminary data on the cost and operation of an experimental AMTV system are included. These data were the result of a separate task conducted at JPL, and were included as background information.

Human performance interfaces in air traffic control.

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Yu-Hern; Yeh, Chung-Hsing

2010-01-01

This paper examines how human performance factors in air traffic control (ATC) affect each other through their mutual interactions. The paper extends the conceptual SHEL model of ergonomics to describe the ATC system as human performance interfaces in which the air traffic controllers interact with other human performance factors including other controllers, software, hardware, environment, and organisation. New research hypotheses about the relationships between human performance interfaces of the system are developed and tested on data collected from air traffic controllers, using structural equation modelling. The research result suggests that organisation influences play a more significant role than individual differences or peer influences on how the controllers interact with the software, hardware, and environment of the ATC system. There are mutual influences between the controller-software, controller-hardware, controller-environment, and controller-organisation interfaces of the ATC system, with the exception of the controller-controller interface. Research findings of this study provide practical insights in managing human performance interfaces of the ATC system in the face of internal or external change, particularly in understanding its possible consequences in relation to the interactions between human performance factors.

Advanced fighter technology integration (AFTI)/F-16 Automated Maneuvering Attack System final flight test results

Science.gov (United States)

Dowden, Donald J.; Bessette, Denis E.

1987-01-01

The AFTI F-16 Automated Maneuvering Attack System has undergone developmental and demonstration flight testing over a total of 347.3 flying hours in 237 sorties. The emphasis of this phase of the flight test program was on the development of automated guidance and control systems for air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons delivery, using a digital flight control system, dual avionics multiplex buses, an advanced FLIR sensor with laser ranger, integrated flight/fire-control software, advanced cockpit display and controls, and modified core Multinational Stage Improvement Program avionics.

Human factors measurement for future air traffic control systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Langan-Fox, Janice; Sankey, Michael J; Canty, James M

2009-10-01

This article provides a critical review of research pertaining to the measurement of human factors (HF) issues in current and future air traffic control (ATC). Growing worldwide air traffic demands call for a radical departure from current ATC systems. Future systems will have a fundamental impact on the roles and responsibilities of ATC officers (ATCOs). Valid and reliable methods of assessing HF issues associated with these changes, such as a potential increase (or decrease) in workload, are of utmost importance for advancing theory and for designing systems, procedures, and training. We outline major aviation changes and how these relate to five key HF issues in ATC. Measures are outlined, compared, and evaluated and are followed by guidelines for assessing these issues in the ATC domain. Recommendations for future research are presented. A review of the literature suggests that situational awareness and workload have been widely researched and assessed using a variety of measures, but researchers have neglected the areas of trust, stress, and boredom. We make recommendations for use of particular measures and the construction of new measures. It is predicted that, given the changing role of ATCOs and profound future airspace requirements and configurations, issues of stress, trust, and boredom will become more significant. Researchers should develop and/or refine existing measures of all five key HF issues to assess their impact on ATCO performance. Furthermore, these issues should be considered in a holistic manner. The current article provides an evaluation of research and measures used in HF research on ATC that will aid research and ATC measurement.

Taking Over Control From Highly Automated Vehicles in Complex Traffic Situations: The Role of Traffic Density.

Science.gov (United States)

Gold, Christian; Körber, Moritz; Lechner, David; Bengler, Klaus

2016-06-01

The aim of this study was to quantify the impact of traffic density and verbal tasks on takeover performance in highly automated driving. In highly automated vehicles, the driver has to occasionally take over vehicle control when approaching system limits. To ensure safety, the ability of the driver to regain control of the driving task under various driving situations and different driver states needs to be quantified. Seventy-two participants experienced takeover situations requiring an evasive maneuver on a three-lane highway with varying traffic density (zero, 10, and 20 vehicles per kilometer). In a between-subjects design, half of the participants were engaged in a verbal 20-Questions Task, representing speaking on the phone while driving in a highly automated vehicle. The presence of traffic in takeover situations led to longer takeover times and worse takeover quality in the form of shorter time to collision and more collisions. The 20-Questions Task did not influence takeover time but seemed to have minor effects on the takeover quality. For the design and evaluation of human-machine interaction in takeover situations of highly automated vehicles, the traffic state seems to play a major role, compared to the driver state, manipulated by the 20-Questions Task. The present results can be used by developers of highly automated systems to appropriately design human-machine interfaces and to assess the driver's time budget for regaining control. © 2016, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Design of automation tools for management of descent traffic

Science.gov (United States)

Erzberger, Heinz; Nedell, William

1988-01-01

The design of an automated air traffic control system based on a hierarchy of advisory tools for controllers is described. Compatibility of the tools with the human controller, a key objective of the design, is achieved by a judicious selection of tasks to be automated and careful attention to the design of the controller system interface. The design comprises three interconnected subsystems referred to as the Traffic Management Advisor, the Descent Advisor, and the Final Approach Spacing Tool. Each of these subsystems provides a collection of tools for specific controller positions and tasks. This paper focuses primarily on the Descent Advisor which provides automation tools for managing descent traffic. The algorithms, automation modes, and graphical interfaces incorporated in the design are described. Information generated by the Descent Advisor tools is integrated into a plan view traffic display consisting of a high-resolution color monitor. Estimated arrival times of aircraft are presented graphically on a time line, which is also used interactively in combination with a mouse input device to select and schedule arrival times. Other graphical markers indicate the location of the fuel-optimum top-of-descent point and the predicted separation distances of aircraft at a designated time-control point. Computer generated advisories provide speed and descent clearances which the controller can issue to aircraft to help them arrive at the feeder gate at the scheduled times or with specified separation distances. Two types of horizontal guidance modes, selectable by the controller, provide markers for managing the horizontal flightpaths of aircraft under various conditions. The entire system consisting of descent advisor algorithm, a library of aircraft performance models, national airspace system data bases, and interactive display software has been implemented on a workstation made by Sun Microsystems, Inc. It is planned to use this configuration in operational

Concept for a Satellite-Based Advanced Air Traffic Management System : Volume 4. Operational Description and Qualitative Assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

1974-02-01

The volume presents a description of how the Satellite-Based Advanced Air Traffic Management System (SAATMS) operates and a qualitative assessment of the system. The operational description includes the services, functions, and tasks performed by the...

Traffic control and intelligent vehicle highway systems: a survey

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Baskar, L.D.; Schutter, B. de; Hellendoorn, J.; Papp, Z.

2011-01-01

Traffic congestion in highway networks is one of the main issues to be addressed by today's traffic management schemes. Automation combined with the increasing market penetration of on-line communication, navigation and advanced driver assistance systems will ultimately result in intelligent vehicle

Relative position vectors: an alternative approach to conflict detection in air traffic control.

Science.gov (United States)

Vuckovic, Anita; Sanderson, Penelope; Neal, Andrew; Gaukrodger, Stephen; Wong, B L William

2013-10-01

We explore whether the visual presentation of relative position vectors (RPVs) improves conflict detection in conditions representing some aspects of future airspace concepts. To help air traffic controllers manage increasing traffic, new tools and systems can automate more cognitively demanding processes, such as conflict detection. However, some studies reveal adverse effects of such tools, such as reduced situation awareness and increased workload. New displays are needed that help air traffic controllers handle increasing traffic loads. A new display tool based on the display of RPVs, the Multi-Conflict Display (MCD), is evaluated in a series of simulated conflict detection tasks. The conflict detection performance of air traffic controllers with the MCD plus a conventional plan-view radar display is compared with their performance with a conventional plan-view radar display alone. Performance with the MCD plus radar was better than with radar alone in complex scenarios requiring controllers to find all actual or potential conflicts, especially when the number of aircraft on the screen was large. However performance with radar alone was better for static scenarios in which conflicts for a target aircraft, or target pair of aircraft, were the focus. Complementing the conventional plan-view display with an RPV display may help controllers detect conflicts more accurately with extremely high aircraft counts. We provide an initial proof of concept that RPVs may be useful for supporting conflict detection in situations that are partially representative of conditions in which controllers will be working in the future.

Automated Traffic Management System and Method

Science.gov (United States)

Glass, Brian J. (Inventor); Spirkovska, Liljana (Inventor); McDermott, William J. (Inventor); Reisman, Ronald J. (Inventor); Gibson, James (Inventor); Iverson, David L. (Inventor)

2000-01-01

A data management system and method that enables acquisition, integration, and management of real-time data generated at different rates, by multiple heterogeneous incompatible data sources. The system achieves this functionality by using an expert system to fuse data from a variety of airline, airport operations, ramp control, and air traffic control tower sources, to establish and update reference data values for every aircraft surface operation. The system may be configured as a real-time airport surface traffic management system (TMS) that electronically interconnects air traffic control, airline data, and airport operations data to facilitate information sharing and improve taxi queuing. In the TMS operational mode, empirical data shows substantial benefits in ramp operations for airlines, reducing departure taxi times by about one minute per aircraft in operational use, translating as $12 to $15 million per year savings to airlines at the Atlanta, Georgia airport. The data management system and method may also be used for scheduling the movement of multiple vehicles in other applications, such as marine vessels in harbors and ports, trucks or railroad cars in ports or shipping yards, and railroad cars in switching yards. Finally, the data management system and method may be used for managing containers at a shipping dock, stock on a factory floor or in a warehouse, or as a training tool for improving situational awareness of FAA tower controllers, ramp and airport operators, or commercial airline personnel in airfield surface operations.

Minimizing the disruptive effects of prospective memory in simulated air traffic control.

Science.gov (United States)

Loft, Shayne; Smith, Rebekah E; Remington, Roger W

2013-09-01

Prospective memory refers to remembering to perform an intended action in the future. Failures of prospective memory can occur in air traffic control. In two experiments, we examined the utility of external aids for facilitating air traffic management in a simulated air traffic control task with prospective memory requirements. Participants accepted and handed-off aircraft and detected aircraft conflicts. The prospective memory task involved remembering to deviate from a routine operating procedure when accepting target aircraft. External aids that contained details of the prospective memory task appeared and flashed when target aircraft needed acceptance. In Experiment 1, external aids presented either adjacent or nonadjacent to each of the 20 target aircraft presented over the 40-min test phase reduced prospective memory error by 11% compared with a condition without external aids. In Experiment 2, only a single target aircraft was presented a significant time (39-42 min) after presentation of the prospective memory instruction, and the external aids reduced prospective memory error by 34%. In both experiments, costs to the efficiency of nonprospective memory air traffic management (nontarget aircraft acceptance response time, conflict detection response time) were reduced by nonadjacent aids compared with no aids or adjacent aids. In contrast, in both experiments, the efficiency of the prospective memory air traffic management (target aircraft acceptance response time) was facilitated by adjacent aids compared with nonadjacent aids. Together, these findings have potential implications for the design of automated alerting systems to maximize multitask performance in work settings where operators monitor and control demanding perceptual displays. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

INTEGRATED SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN AIR TRAFFIC SERVICES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Volodymyr Kharchenko

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the analysis of the researches conducted in the field of safety management systems.Safety management system framework, methods and tools for safety analysis in Air Traffic Control have been reviewed.Principles of development of Integrated safety management system in Air Traffic Services have been proposed.

Flight to the future : human factors in air traffic control

Science.gov (United States)

1997-01-01

The nation's air traffic control system is responsible for managing a complex : mixture of air traffic from commercial, general, corporate, and military : aviation. Despite a strong safety record, the system does suffer occasional : serious disruptio...

Cognitive process modelling of controllers in en route air traffic control.

Science.gov (United States)

Inoue, Satoru; Furuta, Kazuo; Nakata, Keiichi; Kanno, Taro; Aoyama, Hisae; Brown, Mark

2012-01-01

In recent years, various efforts have been made in air traffic control (ATC) to maintain traffic safety and efficiency in the face of increasing air traffic demands. ATC is a complex process that depends to a large degree on human capabilities, and so understanding how controllers carry out their tasks is an important issue in the design and development of ATC systems. In particular, the human factor is considered to be a serious problem in ATC safety and has been identified as a causal factor in both major and minor incidents. There is, therefore, a need to analyse the mechanisms by which errors occur due to complex factors and to develop systems that can deal with these errors. From the cognitive process perspective, it is essential that system developers have an understanding of the more complex working processes that involve the cooperative work of multiple controllers. Distributed cognition is a methodological framework for analysing cognitive processes that span multiple actors mediated by technology. In this research, we attempt to analyse and model interactions that take place in en route ATC systems based on distributed cognition. We examine the functional problems in an ATC system from a human factors perspective, and conclude by identifying certain measures by which to address these problems. This research focuses on the analysis of air traffic controllers' tasks for en route ATC and modelling controllers' cognitive processes. This research focuses on an experimental study to gain a better understanding of controllers' cognitive processes in air traffic control. We conducted ethnographic observations and then analysed the data to develop a model of controllers' cognitive process. This analysis revealed that strategic routines are applicable to decision making.

Complexity and Automation Displays of Air Traffic Control: Literature Review and Analysis

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Xing, Jing; Manning, Carol A

2005-01-01

This report reviewed a number of measures of complexity associated with visual displays and analyzed the potential to apply these methods to assess the complexity of air traffic control (ATC) displays...

Adaptive Automation Triggered by EEG-Based Mental Workload Index: A Passive Brain-Computer Interface Application in Realistic Air Traffic Control Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Aricò, Pietro; Borghini, Gianluca; Di Flumeri, Gianluca; Colosimo, Alfredo; Bonelli, Stefano; Golfetti, Alessia; Pozzi, Simone; Imbert, Jean-Paul; Granger, Géraud; Benhacene, Raïlane; Babiloni, Fabio

2016-01-01

Adaptive Automation (AA) is a promising approach to keep the task workload demand within appropriate levels in order to avoid both the under - and over-load conditions, hence enhancing the overall performance and safety of the human-machine system. The main issue on the use of AA is how to trigger the AA solutions without affecting the operative task. In this regard, passive Brain-Computer Interface (pBCI) systems are a good candidate to activate automation, since they are able to gather information about the covert behavior (e.g., mental workload) of a subject by analyzing its neurophysiological signals (i.e., brain activity), and without interfering with the ongoing operational activity. We proposed a pBCI system able to trigger AA solutions integrated in a realistic Air Traffic Management (ATM) research simulator developed and hosted at ENAC (É cole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile of Toulouse, France). Twelve Air Traffic Controller (ATCO) students have been involved in the experiment and they have been asked to perform ATM scenarios with and without the support of the AA solutions. Results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed pBCI system, since it enabled the AA mostly during the high-demanding conditions (i.e., overload situations) inducing a reduction of the mental workload under which the ATCOs were operating. On the contrary, as desired, the AA was not activated when workload level was under the threshold, to prevent too low demanding conditions that could bring the operator's workload level toward potentially dangerous conditions of underload.

A safety assessment methodology applied to CNS/ATM-based air traffic control system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vismari, Lucio Flavio, E-mail: lucio.vismari@usp.b [Safety Analysis Group (GAS), School of Engineering at University of Sao Paulo (Poli-USP), Av. Prof. Luciano Gualberto, Trav.3, n.158, Predio da Engenharia de Eletricidade, Sala C2-32, CEP 05508-900, Sao Paulo (Brazil); Batista Camargo Junior, Joao, E-mail: joaocamargo@usp.b [Safety Analysis Group (GAS), School of Engineering at University of Sao Paulo (Poli-USP), Av. Prof. Luciano Gualberto, Trav.3, n.158, Predio da Engenharia de Eletricidade, Sala C2-32, CEP 05508-900, Sao Paulo (Brazil)

2011-07-15

In the last decades, the air traffic system has been changing to adapt itself to new social demands, mainly the safe growth of worldwide traffic capacity. Those changes are ruled by the Communication, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) paradigm , based on digital communication technologies (mainly satellites) as a way of improving communication, surveillance, navigation and air traffic management services. However, CNS/ATM poses new challenges and needs, mainly related to the safety assessment process. In face of these new challenges, and considering the main characteristics of the CNS/ATM, a methodology is proposed at this work by combining 'absolute' and 'relative' safety assessment methods adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in ICAO Doc.9689 , using Fluid Stochastic Petri Nets (FSPN) as the modeling formalism, and compares the safety metrics estimated from the simulation of both the proposed (in analysis) and the legacy system models. To demonstrate its usefulness, the proposed methodology was applied to the 'Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcasting' (ADS-B) based air traffic control system. As conclusions, the proposed methodology assured to assess CNS/ATM system safety properties, in which FSPN formalism provides important modeling capabilities, and discrete event simulation allowing the estimation of the desired safety metric.

A safety assessment methodology applied to CNS/ATM-based air traffic control system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vismari, Lucio Flavio; Batista Camargo Junior, Joao

2011-01-01

In the last decades, the air traffic system has been changing to adapt itself to new social demands, mainly the safe growth of worldwide traffic capacity. Those changes are ruled by the Communication, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) paradigm , based on digital communication technologies (mainly satellites) as a way of improving communication, surveillance, navigation and air traffic management services. However, CNS/ATM poses new challenges and needs, mainly related to the safety assessment process. In face of these new challenges, and considering the main characteristics of the CNS/ATM, a methodology is proposed at this work by combining 'absolute' and 'relative' safety assessment methods adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in ICAO Doc.9689 , using Fluid Stochastic Petri Nets (FSPN) as the modeling formalism, and compares the safety metrics estimated from the simulation of both the proposed (in analysis) and the legacy system models. To demonstrate its usefulness, the proposed methodology was applied to the 'Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcasting' (ADS-B) based air traffic control system. As conclusions, the proposed methodology assured to assess CNS/ATM system safety properties, in which FSPN formalism provides important modeling capabilities, and discrete event simulation allowing the estimation of the desired safety metric.

Information Presentation and Control in a Modern Air Traffic Control Tower Simulator

Science.gov (United States)

Haines, Richard F.; Doubek, Sharon; Rabin, Boris; Harke, Stanton

1996-01-01

The proper presentation and management of information in America's largest and busiest (Level V) air traffic control towers calls for an in-depth understanding of many different human-computer considerations: user interface design for graphical, radar, and text; manual and automated data input hardware; information/display output technology; reconfigurable workstations; workload assessment; and many other related subjects. This paper discusses these subjects in the context of the Surface Development and Test Facility (SDTF) currently under construction at NASA's Ames Research Center, a full scale, multi-manned, air traffic control simulator which will provide the "look and feel" of an actual airport tower cab. Special emphasis will be given to the human-computer interfaces required for the different kinds of information displayed at the various controller and supervisory positions and to the computer-aided design (CAD) and other analytic, computer-based tools used to develop the facility.

Automated mixed traffic transit vehicle microprocessor controller

Science.gov (United States)

Marks, R. A.; Cassell, P.; Johnston, A. R.

1981-01-01

An improved Automated Mixed Traffic Vehicle (AMTV) speed control system employing a microprocessor and transistor chopper motor current controller is described and its performance is presented in terms of velocity versus time curves. The on board computer hardware and software systems are described as is the software development system. All of the programming used in this controller was implemented using FORTRAN. This microprocessor controller made possible a number of safety features and improved the comfort associated with starting and shopping. In addition, most of the vehicle's performance characteristics can be altered by simple program parameter changes. A failure analysis of the microprocessor controller was generated and the results are included. Flow diagrams for the speed control algorithms and complete FORTRAN code listings are also included.

Airport Information Retrieval System (AIRS) System Support Manual

Science.gov (United States)

1973-01-01

This handbook is a support manual for prototype air traffic flow control automation system developed for the FAA's Systems Command Center. The system is implemented on a time-sharing computer and is designed to provide airport traffic load prediction...

Pilot and Controller Evaluations of Separation Function Allocation in Air Traffic Management

Science.gov (United States)

Wing, David; Prevot, Thomas; Morey, Susan; Lewis, Timothy; Martin, Lynne; Johnson, Sally; Cabrall, Christopher; Como, Sean; Homola, Jeffrey; Sheth-Chandra, Manasi; style="text-decoration: none; " href="javascript:void(0); " onClick="displayelement('author_20130014930'); toggleEditAbsImage('author_20130014930_show'); toggleEditAbsImage('author_20130014930_hide'); "> style="display:inline; width:12px; height:12px; " src="images/arrow-up.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" alt="hide" id="author_20130014930_show"> style="width:12px; height:12px; display:none; " src="images/arrow-down.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" alt="hide" id="author_20130014930_hide">

2013-01-01

Two human-in-the-loop simulation experiments were conducted in coordinated fashion to investigate the allocation of separation assurance functions between ground and air and between humans and automation. The experiments modeled a mixed-operations concept in which aircraft receiving ground-based separation services shared the airspace with aircraft providing their own separation service (i.e., self-separation). Ground-based separation was provided by air traffic controllers without automation tools, with tools, or by ground-based automation with controllers in a managing role. Airborne self-separation was provided by airline pilots using self-separation automation enabled by airborne surveillance technology. The two experiments, one pilot-focused and the other controller-focused, addressed selected key issues of mixed operations, assuming the starting point of current-day operations and modeling an emergence of NextGen technologies and procedures. In the controller-focused experiment, the impact of mixed operations on controller performance was assessed at four stages of NextGen implementation. In the pilot-focused experiment, the limits to which pilots with automation tools could take full responsibility for separation from ground-controlled aircraft were tested. Results indicate that the presence of self-separating aircraft had little impact on the controllers' ability to provide separation services for ground-controlled aircraft. Overall performance was best in the most automated environment in which all aircraft were data communications equipped, ground-based separation was highly automated, and self-separating aircraft had access to trajectory intent information for all aircraft. In this environment, safe, efficient, and highly acceptable operations could be achieved for twice today's peak airspace throughput. In less automated environments, reduced trajectory intent exchange and manual air traffic control limited the safely achievable airspace throughput and

Automated Systems for Road Safety control in a Developing World ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

An Automated system was finally designed and developed for road safety control. This Automated system is believed to have the capacity to minimize or eliminate the problems identified in this study on traffic control in a developing world. Key words: drivers, traffic situation information, accident causation, FRSC ...

THE QUESTION OF DEVELOPMENT OF AUTOMATED SYSTEMS FOR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. Shirin

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The current systems and methods for automated traffic management in cities are analyzed. The management in cities is analyzed. The management levels are specified. There were fermulated the general requirements, objectives and funnctions of the automated sistems for traffic management with regard to the modern transport problems as well as proposed their aditional managemrnt and infor-maton functions. A phased approach to the implementation of projects on creation of automated sys-tems of traffic management is offered.

AN AUTOMATED RAILWAY STATION TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEM

African Journals Online (AJOL)

user

2017-01-01

Jan 1, 2017 ... Software simulation was carried out using the Proteus virtual system modeling ... system which helps in track switching and level crossing gate traffic control is capable of improving reliability, speed, .... Lane Switching Network.

Concepts and algorithms for terminal-area traffic management

Science.gov (United States)

Erzberger, H.; Chapel, J. D.

1984-01-01

The nation's air-traffic-control system is the subject of an extensive modernization program, including the planned introduction of advanced automation techniques. This paper gives an overview of a concept for automating terminal-area traffic management. Four-dimensional (4D) guidance techniques, which play an essential role in the automated system, are reviewed. One technique, intended for on-board computer implementation, is based on application of optimal control theory. The second technique is a simplified approach to 4D guidance intended for ground computer implementation. It generates advisory messages to help the controller maintain scheduled landing times of aircraft not equipped with on-board 4D guidance systems. An operational system for the second technique, recently evaluated in a simulation, is also described.

Air Traffic Control: Status of FAA's Implementation of the Display System Replacement Project

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

1999-01-01

...) implementation of the Display System Replacement (DSR) project. DSR, which replaces the controllers' workstations and other equipment in the nation's en route centers, is one of FAA's major projects under the air traffic control modernization program...

Automation of Data Traffic Control on DSM Architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Frumkin, Michael; Jin, Hao-Qiang; Yan, Jerry

2001-01-01

The design of distributed shared memory (DSM) computers liberates users from the duty to distribute data across processors and allows for the incremental development of parallel programs using, for example, OpenMP or Java threads. DSM architecture greatly simplifies the development of parallel programs having good performance on a few processors. However, to achieve a good program scalability on DSM computers requires that the user understand data flow in the application and use various techniques to avoid data traffic congestions. In this paper we discuss a number of such techniques, including data blocking, data placement, data transposition and page size control and evaluate their efficiency on the NAS (NASA Advanced Supercomputing) Parallel Benchmarks. We also present a tool which automates the detection of constructs causing data congestions in Fortran array oriented codes and advises the user on code transformations for improving data traffic in the application.

Human factors assessment of conflict resolution aid reliability and time pressure in future air traffic control.

Science.gov (United States)

Trapsilawati, Fitri; Qu, Xingda; Wickens, Chris D; Chen, Chun-Hsien

2015-01-01

Though it has been reported that air traffic controllers' (ATCos') performance improves with the aid of a conflict resolution aid (CRA), the effects of imperfect automation on CRA are so far unknown. The main objective of this study was to examine the effects of imperfect automation on conflict resolution. Twelve students with ATC knowledge were instructed to complete ATC tasks in four CRA conditions including reliable, unreliable and high time pressure, unreliable and low time pressure, and manual conditions. Participants were able to resolve the designated conflicts more accurately and faster in the reliable versus unreliable CRA conditions. When comparing the unreliable CRA and manual conditions, unreliable CRA led to better conflict resolution performance and higher situation awareness. Surprisingly, high time pressure triggered better conflict resolution performance as compared to the low time pressure condition. The findings from the present study highlight the importance of CRA in future ATC operations. Practitioner Summary: Conflict resolution aid (CRA) is a proposed automation decision aid in air traffic control (ATC). It was found in the present study that CRA was able to promote air traffic controllers' performance even when it was not perfectly reliable. These findings highlight the importance of CRA in future ATC operations.

Air Traffic Control: Observations on FAA's Air Traffic Control Modernization Program

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

1999-01-01

In 1981, FAA began a multibillion-dollar modernization effort to improve the safety, capacity, and efficiency of this system to meet the increasing demand for air traffic services and to replace aging equipment...

Automation warning system against driver falling asleep in-traffic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dymov I. S.

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The paper is devoted to the development of a new automation recognition and warning system against driver falling asleep in-traffic. The issue of the physical condition control of professional drivers on the voyage has been considered both on the part of efficiency and quality of its determination, and in terms of improving overall road safety. The existing and widely used devices for determining the transition to the stage of sleep of drivers being in-traffic have been analyzed. Their advantages and disadvantages have been detected. It has been established that the main negative factor preventing the mass introduction of pre-existing warning systems is the need to wear one or another monitoring device before starting the movement. Carried out project research work has proposed a complex monitoring of the physical and physiological condition of driving person as a new warning method against falling asleep in-traffic. The proposed variations of algorithmic implementations can be used in long-distance trucks and passenger vehicles. Two different versions of the automatic control status of the driver physical condition have been considered. The first approach has proposed the use of sensors of the biometric parameters of body, pulsus, body temperature, and hands on wheel pressure sensors. The second one has proposed using the tracking cameras. Both for the first and second versions of the automation system a toolset of control devices is being installed inside the vehicle and have no physical, so irritating action on the driver. Software approach for the false operation rejection of the devices has been developed. The paper considers the flow diagrams of the automatic systems and logical structure of analysis and decision-making. The set of impacts intended for driver's awakening has been proposed. The conclusion about the engineering perspectives of the proposed approach of projected automation systems has been made.

Measurement of Temporal Awareness in Air Traffic Control

Science.gov (United States)

Rantanen, E.M.

2009-01-01

Temporal awareness, or level 3 situation awareness, is critical to successful control of air traffic, yet the construct remains ill-defined and difficult to measure. This research sought evidence for air traffic controllers awareness of temporal characteristics of their tasks in data from a high-fidelity system evaluation simulation. Five teams of controllers worked on four scenarios with different traffic load. Several temporal parameters were defined for each task controllers performed during a simulation run and their actions on the tasks were timed relative to them. Controllers showed a strong tendency to prioritize tasks according to a first come, first served principle. This trend persisted as task load increased. Also evident was awareness of the urgency of tasks, as tasks with impending closing of a window of opportunity were performed before tasks that had longer time available before closing of the window.

Cyber-Threat Assessment for the Air Traffic Management System: A Network Controls Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Roy, Sandip; Sridhar, Banavar

2016-01-01

Air transportation networks are being disrupted with increasing frequency by failures in their cyber- (computing, communication, control) systems. Whether these cyber- failures arise due to deliberate attacks or incidental errors, they can have far-reaching impact on the performance of the air traffic control and management systems. For instance, a computer failure in the Washington DC Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZDC) on August 15, 2015, caused nearly complete closure of the Centers airspace for several hours. This closure had a propagative impact across the United States National Airspace System, causing changed congestion patterns and requiring placement of a suite of traffic management initiatives to address the capacity reduction and congestion. A snapshot of traffic on that day clearly shows the closure of the ZDC airspace and the resulting congestion at its boundary, which required augmented traffic management at multiple locations. Cyber- events also have important ramifications for private stakeholders, particularly the airlines. During the last few months, computer-system issues have caused several airlines fleets to be grounded for significant periods of time: these include United Airlines (twice), LOT Polish Airlines, and American Airlines. Delays and regional stoppages due to cyber- events are even more common, and may have myriad causes (e.g., failure of the Department of Homeland Security systems needed for security check of passengers, see [3]). The growing frequency of cyber- disruptions in the air transportation system reflects a much broader trend in the modern society: cyber- failures and threats are becoming increasingly pervasive, varied, and impactful. In consequence, an intense effort is underway to develop secure and resilient cyber- systems that can protect against, detect, and remove threats, see e.g. and its many citations. The outcomes of this wide effort on cyber- security are applicable to the air transportation infrastructure

Performance of an Automated-Mixed-Traffic-Vehicle /AMTV/ System. [urban people mover

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, T. K. C.; Chon, K.

1978-01-01

This study analyzes the operation and evaluates the expected performance of a proposed automatic guideway transit system which uses low-speed Automated Mixed Traffic Vehicles (AMTV's). Vehicle scheduling and headway control policies are evaluated with a transit system simulation model. The effect of mixed-traffic interference on the average vehicle speed is examined with a vehicle-pedestrian interface model. Control parameters regulating vehicle speed are evaluated for safe stopping and passenger comfort.

Analysis of air safety in the European system of air traffic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

О.Є. Луппо

2008-04-01

Full Text Available  Article describes air traffic safety provision requirements in the Air Traffic Management system of Europe. Consideration of air traffic variation which affecting the air traffic management operations have been reviewed.

Airport Information Retrieval System (AIRS) User's Guide

Science.gov (United States)

1973-08-01

The handbook is a user's guide for a prototype air traffic flow control automation system developed for the FAA's System Command Center. The system is implemented on a time-sharing computer and is designed to provide airport traffic load predictions ...

MODELS OF AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ERRORS PREVENTION IN TERMINAL CONTROL AREAS UNDER UNCERTAINTY CONDITIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Volodymyr Kharchenko

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Purpose: the aim of this study is to research applied models of air traffic controllers’ errors prevention in terminal control areas (TMA under uncertainty conditions. In this work the theoretical framework descripting safety events and errors of air traffic controllers connected with the operations in TMA is proposed. Methods: optimisation of terminal control area formal description based on the Threat and Error management model and the TMA network model of air traffic flows. Results: the human factors variables associated with safety events in work of air traffic controllers under uncertainty conditions were obtained. The Threat and Error management model application principles to air traffic controller operations and the TMA network model of air traffic flows were proposed. Discussion: Information processing context for preventing air traffic controller errors, examples of threats in work of air traffic controllers, which are relevant for TMA operations under uncertainty conditions.

Simulation of intersection of complicated information signals in air traffic control systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Е. В. Коба

2000-12-01

Full Text Available Considered is the problem of complicated system simulation with customers incoming flows. Developed is an algorithm accelerated of finding probability of the superposition of complicated customers. Derived are the top and bottom estimates of damage-factor which are connected with complical customers superposition. Noticed is connection with simulation problem of air traffic control system

Modem Communications Systems Development Guidelines in Function of Air Traffic Safety ...

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Petar Obradović

2007-05-01

Full Text Available The communications requirements in air traffic control areincreasing in complexity. From the middle 90s, huge progress inairport infrastructure, especially in air traffic control systems,has been made in Bosnia and Herzegovina in damage rehabilitation,caused by war conflicts, owing, first of all, to the EuropeanUnion aid that contributed to the re-establishment of regularinternational air traffic. The current air traffic control systemhas matured in its functionality. Therefore, the phase of advancementand preparation for the technological improvementis the next logical step. However, before establishing a new communicationsstrategy, the current application trends have to beanalyzed in details according to the existing communicationsenvironment interfaces. The goal of this work is to find theguidelines of technological development that will result in moreefficiency, safety and economic benefit in the near future, butthe air traffic safety must not be compromised by economicbenefit.

Aviation safety/automation program overview

Science.gov (United States)

Morello, Samuel A.

1990-01-01

The goal is to provide a technology base leading to improved safety of the national airspace system through the development and integration of human-centered automation technologies for aircraft crews and air traffic controllers. Information on the problems, specific objectives, human-automation interaction, intelligent error-tolerant systems, and air traffic control/cockpit integration is given in viewgraph form.

Detecting air traffic controller interventions in recorded air transportation system data

Science.gov (United States)

Kwon, Yul

In this study, I propose a systematic method of detecting aircraft deviation due to air traffic controller (ATC) intervention. The aircraft deviations associated with ATC interventions are detected using a heuristic algorithm developed from analyzing the actual positions of an aircraft to its filed flight plan when the aircraft trajectories were identified as having an encounter in a loss-of-separation incident. An actual (closed-loop) flight trajectory of the Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZOB ARTCC) was collected from the FlightAware database. This was compared with the corresponding planned (open-loop) trajectory dataset generated by the Microsoft(c) Flight Simulator X (FSX). I implemented a conflict-detection algorithm in Matlab to identify open-loop flight trajectories that encounters in loss-of-separation. I analyzed the differences between the closed-loop and open-loop flight trajectories of aircrafts that were identified to have encounters in loss of separation. The analysis identified operationally significant deviations in the closed-loop trajectory data with respect to the horizontal paths of the aircrafts. I then developed and validated a heuristic algorithm, the ATC intervention detection algorithm, based on the findings from the analysis. When used with a test dataset to validate the algorithm, it achieved an 85.7% detection rate in detecting horizontal deviations made by the ATC in resolving identified conflicts, and a false-alarm rate of 68%. In addition to the ATC intervention detection algorithm, I present in this paper an analysis of deviated flight trajectories in an effort to display how the presented methodology can be utilized to provide insight into air traffic controller resolution strategies.

Data link air traffic control and flight deck environments: Experiment in flight crew performance

Science.gov (United States)

Lozito, Sandy; Mcgann, Alison; Corker, Kevin

1993-01-01

This report describes an experiment undertaken in a full mission simulation environment to investigate the performance impact of, and human/system response to, data-linked Air Traffic Control (ATC) and automated flight deck operations. Subjects were twenty pilots (ten crews) from a major United States air carrier. Crews flew the Advanced Concepts Flight Simulator (ACFS), a generic 'glass cockpit' simulator at NASA Ames. The method of data link used was similar to the data link implementation plans for a next-generation aircraft, and included the capability to review ATC messages and directly enter ATC clearance information into the aircraft systems. Each crew flew experimental scenarios, in which data reflecting communication timing, errors and clarifications, and procedures were collected. Results for errors and clarifications revealed an interaction between communication modality (voice v. data link) and communication type (air/ground v. intracrew). Results also revealed that voice crews initiated ATC contact significantly more than data link crews. It was also found that data link crews performed significantly more extraneous activities during the communication task than voice crews. Descriptive data from the use of the review menu indicate the pilot-not-flying accessing the review menu most often, and also suggest diffulty in accessing the target message within the review menu structure. The overall impact of communication modality upon air/ground communication and crew procedures is discussed.

Multilevel Control & Optimization of Future Air Traffic Systems via Managem

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — We investigate solutions to problems of air traffic control subject to real-world limitations on the computational/communication cost of finding that solution. The...

Air Traffic ControL : FAA Order 7110.65K

Science.gov (United States)

1997-07-17

This order prescribes air traffic control procedures and phraseology for use by : personnel providing air traffic control services. Controllers are required to : be familiar with the provisions of this order that pertain to their operational : respon...

Development and Validation in Air Traffic Control by Means of Real-Time Simulations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephan Herr

2009-02-01

and gradually optimised. This paper focuses on how data were collected during the real-time simulation. In addition to collecting traffic-specific indicators and data concerning the taskload situation, we also performed an eye-tracking analysis in cooperation with the Darmstadt University of Technology to analyse changes relating to the working methods and the information used. Another objective of the paper is to compare the use of the prototype simulation platform for the real-time simulation with the use of operational systems for simulation purposes. Adapting operational systems to new operational procedures and functionalities is always associated with considerable costs. Air traffic controllers, however, need a realistic working environment for such simulations. Otherwise, it is impossible to obtain reliable results. It is not easy to develop a simulation platform that ensures both a realistic environment and quick and flexible adaptation capabilities. The project successfully met this challenge with the help of the Advanced Function Simulator (AFS of the R&D Centre at DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung. The major features of the prototype simulation platform, i.e. rapid data adaptation, iterative development and automatic compilation of all user interactions, are shown using Project MSP D/L as an example. An overview of the results achieved in the real-time simulation is given at the end of the paper.

Theoretical Aspects of Erroneous Actions During the Process of Decision Making by Air Traffic Control

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andersone Silva

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The Theoretical Aspects of Erroneous Actions During the Process of Decision Making by Air Traffic Control evaluates the factors affecting the operational decision-making of a human air traffic controller, interacting in a dynamic environment with the flight crew, surrounding aircraft traffic and environmental conditions of the airspace. This article reviews the challenges of air traffic control in different conditions, ranging from normal and complex to emergency and catastrophic. Workload factors and operating conditions make an impact on air traffic controllers’ decision-making. The proposed model compares various operating conditions within an assumed air traffic control environment subsequently comparing them against a theoretically “perfect” air traffic control system. A mathematical model of flight safety assessment has been proposed for the quantitative assessment of various hazards arising during the process of Air Traffic Control. The model assumes events of various severity and probability ranging from high frequency and low severity up to less likely and catastrophic ones. Certain limitations of the model have been recognised and further improvements for effective hazard evaluation have been suggested.

Modeling activities in air traffic control systems: antecedents and consequences of a mid-air collision.

Science.gov (United States)

de Carvalho, Paulo Victor R; Ferreira, Bemildo

2012-01-01

In this article we present a model of some functions and activities of the Brazilian Air traffic Control System (ATS) in the period in which occurred a mid-air collision between flight GLO1907, a commercial aircraft Boeing 737-800, and flight N600XL, an executive jet EMBRAER E-145, to investigate key resilience characteristics of the ATM. Modeling in some detail activities during the collision and related them to overall behavior and antecedents that stress the organization uncover some drift into failure mechanisms that erode safety defenses provided by the Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP), enabling a mid-air collision to be happen.

A knowledge-based system for controlling automobile traffic

Science.gov (United States)

Maravas, Alexander; Stengel, Robert F.

1994-01-01

Transportation network capacity variations arising from accidents, roadway maintenance activity, and special events as well as fluctuations in commuters' travel demands complicate traffic management. Artificial intelligence concepts and expert systems can be useful in framing policies for incident detection, congestion anticipation, and optimal traffic management. This paper examines the applicability of intelligent route guidance and control as decision aids for traffic management. Basic requirements for managing traffic are reviewed, concepts for studying traffic flow are introduced, and mathematical models for modeling traffic flow are examined. Measures for quantifying transportation network performance levels are chosen, and surveillance and control strategies are evaluated. It can be concluded that automated decision support holds great promise for aiding the efficient flow of automobile traffic over limited-access roadways, bridges, and tunnels.

Optimization of traffic light control system of an intersection using ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper considers an automated static road traffic control system of an intersection for the purpose of minimizing the effects of traffic jam and hence its attendant consequences such as prolonged waiting time, emission of toxic hydrocarbons from automobiles, etc. Using real-time road traffic data, a dynamic round-robin ...

CTAS and NASA Air Traffic Management Fact Sheets for En Route Descent Advisor and Surface Management System

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Katharine

2004-01-01

The Surface Management System (SMS) is a decision support tool that will help controllers, traffic managers, and NAS users manage the movements of aircraft on the surface of busy airports, improving capacity, efficiency, and flexibility. The Advanced Air Transportation Technologies (AATT) Project at NASA is developing SMS in cooperation with the FAA's Free Flight Phase 2 (FFP2) pro5ram. SMS consists of three parts: a traffic management tool, a controller tool, and a National Airspace System (NAS) information tool.

Building the Brain's "Air Traffic Control" System: How Early Experiences Shape the Development of Executive Function. Working Paper 11

Science.gov (United States)

National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2011

2011-01-01

Being able to focus, hold, and work with information in mind, filter distractions, and switch gears is like having an air traffic control system at a busy airport to manage the arrivals and departures of dozens of planes on multiple runways. In the brain, this air traffic control mechanism is called executive functioning, a group of skills that…

Air traffic surveillance and control using hybrid estimation and protocol-based conflict resolution

Science.gov (United States)

Hwang, Inseok

The continued growth of air travel and recent advances in new technologies for navigation, surveillance, and communication have led to proposals by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to provide reliable and efficient tools to aid Air Traffic Control (ATC) in performing their tasks. In this dissertation, we address four problems frequently encountered in air traffic surveillance and control; multiple target tracking and identity management, conflict detection, conflict resolution, and safety verification. We develop a set of algorithms and tools to aid ATC; These algorithms have the provable properties of safety, computational efficiency, and convergence. Firstly, we develop a multiple-maneuvering-target tracking and identity management algorithm which can keep track of maneuvering aircraft in noisy environments and of their identities. Secondly, we propose a hybrid probabilistic conflict detection algorithm between multiple aircraft which uses flight mode estimates as well as aircraft current state estimates. Our algorithm is based on hybrid models of aircraft, which incorporate both continuous dynamics and discrete mode switching. Thirdly, we develop an algorithm for multiple (greater than two) aircraft conflict avoidance that is based on a closed-form analytic solution and thus provides guarantees of safety. Finally, we consider the problem of safety verification of control laws for safety critical systems, with application to air traffic control systems. We approach safety verification through reachability analysis, which is a computationally expensive problem. We develop an over-approximate method for reachable set computation using polytopic approximation methods and dynamic optimization. These algorithms may be used either in a fully autonomous way, or as supporting tools to increase controllers' situational awareness and to reduce their work load.

Simulation of Random Events for Air Traffic Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stéphane Puechmorel

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Resilience to uncertainties must be ensured in air traffic management. Unexpected events can either be disruptive, like thunderstorms or the famous volcano ash cloud resulting from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland, or simply due to imprecise measurements or incomplete knowledge of the environment. While human operators are able to cope with such situations, it is generally not the case for automated decision support tools. Important examples originate from the numerous attempts made to design algorithms able to solve conflicts between aircraft occurring during flights. The STARGATE (STochastic AppRoach for naviGATion functions in uncertain Environment project was initiated in order to study the feasibility of inherently robust automated planning algorithms that will not fail when submitted to random perturbations. A mandatory first step is the ability to simulate the usual stochastic phenomenons impairing the system: delays due to airport platforms or air traffic control (ATC and uncertainties on the wind velocity. The work presented here will detail algorithms suitable for the simulation task.

Analysis of learning curves in the on-the-job training of air traffic controllers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oprins, E.A.P.B.; Bruggraaff, E.; Roe, R.

2011-01-01

This chapter describes a competence-based assessment system, called CBAS, for air traffic control (ATC) simulator and on-the-job training (OJT), developed at Air Traffic Control The Netherlands (LVNL). In contrast with simulator training, learning processes in OJT are difficult to assess, because

Breakdowns in Coordination Between Air Traffic Controllers

Science.gov (United States)

Bearman, Chris; Orasanu, Judith; Miller, Ronald C.

2011-01-01

This talk outlines the complexity of coordination in air traffic control, introduces the NextGen technologies, identifies common causes for coordination breakdowns in air traffic control and examines whether these causes are likely to be reduced with the introduction of NextGen technologies. While some of the common causes of breakdowns will be reduced in a NextGen environment this conclusion should be drawn carefully given the current stage of development of the technologies and the observation that new technologies often shift problems rather than reduce them.

Controlling air toxics through advanced coal preparation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Straszheim, W.E.; Buttermore, W.H.; Pollard, J.L. [Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)

1995-11-01

This project involves the assessment of advanced coal preparation methods for removing trace elements from coal to reduce the potential for air toxic emissions upon combustion. Scanning electron microscopy-based automated image analysis (SEM-AIA) and advanced washability analyses are being applied with state-of-the-art analytical procedures to predict the removal of elements of concern by advanced column flotation and to confirm the effectiveness of preparation on the quality of quantity of clean coal produced. Specific objectives are to maintain an acceptable recovery of combustible product, while improving the rejection of mineral-associated trace elements. Current work has focused on determining conditions for controlling column flotation system across its operating range and on selection and analysis of samples for determining trace element cleanability.

Design of an Ecological Flow-based Interface for 4D Trajectory Management in Air Traffic Control

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pinto, J.; Klomp, R.E.; Borst, C.; Van Paassen, M.M.; Mulder, M.

2015-01-01

The concept of trajectory-based operations as proposed by SESAR and NextGen seeks to increase airspace efficiency and capacity by introducing time as an explicit control variable. Such form of operations lean heavily on the introduction of higher levels of automation to support the human air traffic

Intelligent Control in Automation Based on Wireless Traffic Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kurt Derr; Milos Manic

2007-08-01

Wireless technology is a central component of many factory automation infrastructures in both the commercial and government sectors, providing connectivity among various components in industrial realms (distributed sensors, machines, mobile process controllers). However wireless technologies provide more threats to computer security than wired environments. The advantageous features of Bluetooth technology resulted in Bluetooth units shipments climbing to five million per week at the end of 2005 [1, 2]. This is why the real-time interpretation and understanding of Bluetooth traffic behavior is critical in both maintaining the integrity of computer systems and increasing the efficient use of this technology in control type applications. Although neuro-fuzzy approaches have been applied to wireless 802.11 behavior analysis in the past, a significantly different Bluetooth protocol framework has not been extensively explored using this technology. This paper presents a new neurofuzzy traffic analysis algorithm of this still new territory of Bluetooth traffic. Further enhancements of this algorithm are presented along with the comparison against the traditional, numerical approach. Through test examples, interesting Bluetooth traffic behavior characteristics were captured, and the comparative elegance of this computationally inexpensive approach was demonstrated. This analysis can be used to provide directions for future development and use of this prevailing technology in various control type applications, as well as making the use of it more secure.

Intelligent Control in Automation Based on Wireless Traffic Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kurt Derr; Milos Manic

2007-09-01

Wireless technology is a central component of many factory automation infrastructures in both the commercial and government sectors, providing connectivity among various components in industrial realms (distributed sensors, machines, mobile process controllers). However wireless technologies provide more threats to computer security than wired environments. The advantageous features of Bluetooth technology resulted in Bluetooth units shipments climbing to five million per week at the end of 2005 [1, 2]. This is why the real-time interpretation and understanding of Bluetooth traffic behavior is critical in both maintaining the integrity of computer systems and increasing the efficient use of this technology in control type applications. Although neuro-fuzzy approaches have been applied to wireless 802.11 behavior analysis in the past, a significantly different Bluetooth protocol framework has not been extensively explored using this technology. This paper presents a new neurofuzzy traffic analysis algorithm of this still new territory of Bluetooth traffic. Further enhancements of this algorithm are presented along with the comparison against the traditional, numerical approach. Through test examples, interesting Bluetooth traffic behavior characteristics were captured, and the comparative elegance of this computationally inexpensive approach was demonstrated. This analysis can be used to provide directions for future development and use of this prevailing technology in various control type applications, as well as making the use of it more secure.

Classification of Automated Search Traffic

Science.gov (United States)

Buehrer, Greg; Stokes, Jack W.; Chellapilla, Kumar; Platt, John C.

As web search providers seek to improve both relevance and response times, they are challenged by the ever-increasing tax of automated search query traffic. Third party systems interact with search engines for a variety of reasons, such as monitoring a web site’s rank, augmenting online games, or possibly to maliciously alter click-through rates. In this paper, we investigate automated traffic (sometimes referred to as bot traffic) in the query stream of a large search engine provider. We define automated traffic as any search query not generated by a human in real time. We first provide examples of different categories of query logs generated by automated means. We then develop many different features that distinguish between queries generated by people searching for information, and those generated by automated processes. We categorize these features into two classes, either an interpretation of the physical model of human interactions, or as behavioral patterns of automated interactions. Using the these detection features, we next classify the query stream using multiple binary classifiers. In addition, a multiclass classifier is then developed to identify subclasses of both normal and automated traffic. An active learning algorithm is used to suggest which user sessions to label to improve the accuracy of the multiclass classifier, while also seeking to discover new classes of automated traffic. Performance analysis are then provided. Finally, the multiclass classifier is used to predict the subclass distribution for the search query stream.

Control of Future Air Traffic Systems via Complexity Bound Management

Science.gov (United States)

Alexandrov, Natalia

2013-01-01

The complexity of the present system for managing air traffic has led to "discreteness" in approaches to creating new concepts: new concepts are created as point designs, based on experience, expertise, and creativity of the proposer. Discrete point designs may be highly successful but they are difficult to substantiate in the face of equally strong substantiation of competing concepts, as well as the state of the art in concept evaluation via simulations. Hybrid concepts may present a compromise - the golden middle. Yet a hybrid of sometimes in principle incompatible concepts forms another point design that faces the challenge of substantiation and validation. We are faced with the need to re-design the air transportation system ab initio. This is a daunting task, especially considering the problem of transitioning from the present system to any fundamentally new system. However, design from scratch is also an opportunity to reconsider approaches to new concept development. In this position paper we propose an approach, Optimized Parametric Functional Design, for systematic development of concepts for management and control of airspace systems, based on optimization formulations in terms of required system functions and states. This reasoning framework, realizable in the context of ab initio system design, offers an approach to deriving substantiated airspace management and control concepts. With growing computational power, we hope that the approach will also yield a methodology for actual dynamic control of airspace

Formal Methods Applications in Air Transportation

Science.gov (United States)

Farley, Todd

2009-01-01

The U.S. air transportation system is the most productive in the world, moving far more people and goods than any other. It is also the safest system in the world, thanks in part to its venerable air traffic control system. But as demand for air travel continues to grow, the air traffic control system s aging infrastructure and labor-intensive procedures are impinging on its ability to keep pace with demand. And that impinges on the growth of our economy. Air traffic control modernization has long held the promise of a more efficient air transportation system. Part of NASA s current mission is to develop advanced automation and operational concepts that will expand the capacity of our national airspace system while still maintaining its excellent record for safety. It is a challenging mission, as efforts to modernize have, for decades, been hamstrung by the inability to assure safety to the satisfaction of system operators, system regulators, and/or the traveling public. In this talk, we ll provide a brief history of air traffic control, focusing on the tension between efficiency and safety assurance, and the promise of formal methods going forward.

NASA and FAA Programs in Air Traffic Management

Science.gov (United States)

Condon, Gregory W.

1995-01-01

This presentation will present an overview of NASA and joint NASA/FAA R&D programs related to Air Traffic Management. In addition it will address the plans for the new Advanced Air Transportation Technologies program, which will investigate methods for achieving the airline industries needs for increased flexibility in the nation's air traffic management system.

Development and Evaluation of a Control System for Regional Traffic Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John L. McLin

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Traffic congestion is a worsening problem in metropolitan areas which will require integrated regional traffic control systems to improve traffic conditions. This paper presents a regional traffic control system which can detect incident conditions and provide integrated traffic management during nonrecurrent congestion events. The system combines advanced artificial intelligence techniques with a traffic performance model based on HCM equations. Preliminary evaluation of the control system using traffic microsimulation demonstrates that it has the potential to improve system conditions during traffic incidents. In addition, several enhancements were identified which will make the system more robust in a real traffic control setting. An assessment of the control system elements indicates that there are no substantial technical barriers in implementing this system in a large traffic network.

The use of Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) in a mid-air collision to understand some characteristics of the air traffic management system resilience

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rodrigues de Carvalho, Paulo Victor, E-mail: paulov@ien.gov.br [National Nuclear Energy Commission/Nuclear Engineering Institute, Cidade Universitaria-Ilha do Fundao, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21945-970 (Brazil)

2011-11-15

The Functional Resonance Analysis Model (FRAM) defines a systemic framework to model complex systems for accident analysis purposes. We use FRAM in the mid-air collision between flight GLO1907, a commercial aircraft Boeing 737-800, and flight N600XL, an executive jet EMBRAER E-145, to investigate key resilience characteristics of the Air Traffic Management System (ATM). This ATM system related accident occurred at 16:56 Brazilian time on September 29, 2006 in the Amazonian sky. FRAM analysis of flight monitoring functions showed system constraints (equipment, training, time, and supervision) that produce variability in system behavior, creating demand resources mismatches in an attempt to perceive and control the developing situation. This variability also included control and coordination breakdowns and automation surprises (TCAS functioning). The analysis showed that under normal variability conditions (without catastrophic failures) the ATM system (pilots, controllers, supervisors, and equipment) was not able to close the control loops of the flight monitoring functions using feedback or feedforward strategies to achieve an adequate control of an aircraft flying in the controlled air space. Our findings shed some light on the resilience of Brazilian ATM system operation and indicated that there is a need of a deeper understanding on how the system is actually functioning. - Highlights: > The Functional Resonance Analysis Model (FRAM) was used in a mid-air collision over Amazon. > The aim was to understand key resilience characteristics of the Air Traffic Management System (ATM). > The analysis showed how, under normal conditions, the system was not able to control flight functions. > The findings shed some light about the resilience of Brazilian ATM system operation.

The use of Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) in a mid-air collision to understand some characteristics of the air traffic management system resilience

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rodrigues de Carvalho, Paulo Victor

2011-01-01

The Functional Resonance Analysis Model (FRAM) defines a systemic framework to model complex systems for accident analysis purposes. We use FRAM in the mid-air collision between flight GLO1907, a commercial aircraft Boeing 737-800, and flight N600XL, an executive jet EMBRAER E-145, to investigate key resilience characteristics of the Air Traffic Management System (ATM). This ATM system related accident occurred at 16:56 Brazilian time on September 29, 2006 in the Amazonian sky. FRAM analysis of flight monitoring functions showed system constraints (equipment, training, time, and supervision) that produce variability in system behavior, creating demand resources mismatches in an attempt to perceive and control the developing situation. This variability also included control and coordination breakdowns and automation surprises (TCAS functioning). The analysis showed that under normal variability conditions (without catastrophic failures) the ATM system (pilots, controllers, supervisors, and equipment) was not able to close the control loops of the flight monitoring functions using feedback or feedforward strategies to achieve an adequate control of an aircraft flying in the controlled air space. Our findings shed some light on the resilience of Brazilian ATM system operation and indicated that there is a need of a deeper understanding on how the system is actually functioning. - Highlights: → The Functional Resonance Analysis Model (FRAM) was used in a mid-air collision over Amazon. → The aim was to understand key resilience characteristics of the Air Traffic Management System (ATM). → The analysis showed how, under normal conditions, the system was not able to control flight functions. → The findings shed some light about the resilience of Brazilian ATM system operation.

Multiple Views on Safety-Critical Automation: Aircraft, Autonomous Vehicles, Air Traffic Management and Satellite Ground Segments Perspectives

Science.gov (United States)

Feary, Michael S.; Palanque, Philippe Andre Rolan; Martinie, De Almeida; Tscheligi, Manfred

2016-01-01

This SIG focuses on the engineering of automation in interactive critical systems. Automation has already been studied in a number of (sub-) disciplines and application fields: design, human factors, psychology, (software) engineering, aviation, health care, games. One distinguishing feature of the area we are focusing on is that in the field of interactive critical systems properties such as reliability, dependability, fault-tolerance are as important as usability, user experience or overall acceptance issues. The SIG targets at two problem areas: first the engineering of the user interaction with (partly-) autonomous systems: how to design, build and assess autonomous behavior, especially in cases where there is a need to represent on the user interface both autonomous and interactive objects. An example of such integration is the representation of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) (where no direct interaction is possible), together with aircrafts (that have to be instructed by an air traffic controller to avoid the UAV). Second the design and engineering of user interaction in general for autonomous objects systems (for example a cruise control in a car or an autopilot in an aircraft). The goal of the SIG is to raise interest in the CHI community on the general aspects of automation and to identify a community of researchers and practitioners interested in those increasingly prominent issues of interfaces towards (semi)-autonomous systems. The expected audience should be interested in addressing the issues of integration of mainly unconnected research domains to formulate a new joint research agenda.

Piloted simulation of an air-ground profile negotiation process in a time-based Air Traffic Control environment

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, David H.; Green, Steven M.

1993-01-01

Historically, development of airborne flight management systems (FMS) and ground-based air traffic control (ATC) systems has tended to focus on different objectives with little consideration for operational integration. A joint program, between NASA's Ames Research Center (Ames) and Langley Research Center (Langley), is underway to investigate the issues of, and develop systems for, the integration of ATC and airborne automation systems. A simulation study was conducted to evaluate a profile negotiation process (PNP) between the Center/TRACON Automation System (CTAS) and an aircraft equipped with a four-dimensional flight management system (4D FMS). Prototype procedures were developed to support the functional implementation of this process. The PNP was designed to provide an arrival trajectory solution which satisfies the separation requirements of ATC while remaining as close as possible to the aircraft's preferred trajectory. Results from the experiment indicate the potential for successful incorporation of aircraft-preferred arrival trajectories in the CTAS automation environment. Fuel savings on the order of 2 percent to 8 percent, compared to fuel required for the baseline CTAS arrival speed strategy, were achieved in the test scenarios. The data link procedures and clearances developed for this experiment, while providing the necessary functionality, were found to be operationally unacceptable to the pilots. In particular, additional pilot control and understanding of the proposed aircraft-preferred trajectory, and a simplified clearance procedure were cited as necessary for operational implementation of the concept.

Aeronautical Communications Research and Development Needs for Future Air Traffic Management Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Kerczewski, Robert J.

2002-01-01

Continuing growth in regional and global air travel has resulted in increasing traffic congestion in the air and on the ground. In spite of occasional temporary downturns due to economic recessions and catastrophic events, average growth rates of air travel have remained high since the 1960s. The resulting congestion, which constrains expansion of the air transportation industry, inflicts schedule delays and decreases overall system efficiency, creating a pressing need to develop more efficient methods of air traffic management (ATM). New ATM techniques, procedures, air space automation methods, and decision support tools are being researched and developed for deployment in time frames stretching from the next few years to the year 2020 and beyond. As these methods become more advanced and increase in complexity, the requirements for information generation, sharing and transfer among the relevant entities in the ATM system increase dramatically. However, current aeronautical communications systems will be inadequate to meet the future information transfer demands created by these advanced ATM systems. Therefore, the NASA Glenn Research Center is undertaking research programs to develop communication, methods and key technologies that can meet these future requirements. As part of this process, studies, workshops, testing and experimentation, and research and analysis have established a number of research and technology development needs. The purpose of this paper is to outline the critical research and technology needs that have been identified in these activities, and explain how these needs have been determined.

A sensemaking perspective on framing the mental picture of air traffic controllers.

Science.gov (United States)

Malakis, Stathis; Kontogiannis, Tom

2013-03-01

It has long been recognized that controller strategies are based on a 'mental picture' or representation of traffic situations. Earlier studies indicated that controllers tend to maintain a selective representation of traffic flows based on a few salient traffic features that point out to interesting events (e.g., potential conflicts). A field study is presented in this paper that examines salient features or 'knowledge variables' that constitute the building blocks of controller mental pictures. Verbal reports from participants, a field experiment and observations of real-life scenarios provided insights into the cognitive processes that shape and reframe the mental pictures of controllers. Several cognitive processes (i.e., problem detection, elaboration, reframing and replanning) have been explored within a particular framework of sensemaking stemming from the data/frame theory (Klein et al., 2007). Cognitive maps, representing standard and non-standard air traffic flows, emerged as an explanatory framework for making sense of traffic patterns and for reframing mental pictures. The data/frame theory proved to be a useful theoretical tool for investigating complex cognitive phenomena. The findings of the study have implications for the design of training curricula and decision support systems in air traffic control systems. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

Control techniques for an automated mixed traffic vehicle

Science.gov (United States)

Meisenholder, G. W.; Johnston, A. R.

1977-01-01

The paper describes an automated mixed traffic vehicle (AMTV), a driverless low-speed tram designed to operate in mixed pedestrian and vehicular traffic. The vehicle is a six-passenger electric tram equipped with sensing and control which permit it to function on existing streets in an automatic mode. The design includes established wire-following techniques for steering and near-IR headway sensors. A 7-mph cruise speed is reduced to 2 mph or a complete stop in response to sensor (or passenger) inputs. The AMTV performance is evaluated by operation on a loop route and by simulation. Some necessary improvements involving sensors, sensor pattern, use of an audible signal, and control lag are discussed. It is suggested that appropriate modifications will eliminate collision incidents.

Air Traffic Management Research at NASA

Science.gov (United States)

Farley, Todd

2012-01-01

The U.S. air transportation system is the most productive in the world, moving far more people and goods than any other. It is also the safest system in the world, thanks in part to its venerable air traffic control system. But as demand for air travel continues to grow, the air traffic control systems aging infrastructure and labor-intensive procedures are impinging on its ability to keep pace with demand. And that impinges on the growth of our economy. Part of NASA's current mission in aeronautics research is to invent new technologies and procedures for ATC that will enable our national airspace system to accommodate the increasing demand for air transportation well into the next generation while still maintaining its excellent record for safety. It is a challenging mission, as efforts to modernize have, for decades, been hamstrung by the inability to assure safety to the satisfaction of system operators, system regulators, and/or the traveling public. In this talk, we'll provide a brief history of air traffic control, focusing on the tension between efficiency and safety assurance, and we'll highlight some new NASA technologies coming down the pike.

Altering user' acceptance of automation through prior automation exposure.

Science.gov (United States)

Bekier, Marek; Molesworth, Brett R C

2017-06-01

Air navigation service providers worldwide see increased use of automation as one solution to overcome the capacity constraints imbedded in the present air traffic management (ATM) system. However, increased use of automation within any system is dependent on user acceptance. The present research sought to determine if the point at which an individual is no longer willing to accept or cooperate with automation can be manipulated. Forty participants underwent training on a computer-based air traffic control programme, followed by two ATM exercises (order counterbalanced), one with and one without the aid of automation. Results revealed after exposure to a task with automation assistance, user acceptance of high(er) levels of automation ('tipping point') decreased; suggesting it is indeed possible to alter automation acceptance. Practitioner Summary: This paper investigates whether the point at which a user of automation rejects automation (i.e. 'tipping point') is constant or can be manipulated. The results revealed after exposure to a task with automation assistance, user acceptance of high(er) levels of automation decreased; suggesting it is possible to alter automation acceptance.

ANALYSIS OF AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL MANAGEMENT AT AIRPORTS WITH LOW FLIGHT INTENSITY IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Evgenii E. Nechaev

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This article discusses various options for air traffic management at low flight intensity airports and airports located remotely in the North, where air traffic control service is not necessary.There are some examples of already implemented concepts in foreign countries: such as remote control tower, which allows to control air traffic, being at a considerable distance from the airport. Such a remote control tower is already put into operation at the Örnsköldsvik airport (Sweden. The prospects of this system development in other countries are observed in this article. A remote control tower will also appear in the United States in the nearest future. Also the paper considers the pros and cons of this system and its effect on flight safety.Moreover, there are given the examples of using non-towered and uncontrolled airports, where air traffic control service is not provided. This kind of airports is partly used in the USA and in New Zealand. The article describes flight procedures in the area of uncontrolled airports, including visual flight rules and instrument flight rules.We also analyze the possibilities of remote control towers and uncontrolled airports adaptation in the Russian Federation. It is a very important problem for Russia because most airports do not provide more than 10 movements per day. But air traffic control service exists in all airports.

The Influence of Errors in Visualization Systems on the Level of Safety Threat in Air Traffic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paweł Ferduła

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Air traffic management is carried out by air traffic controllers assisted by complex technical systems that provide them with visualization of the traffic situation. In practice, visualization systems errors sometimes occur. The purpose of this paper is to determine the impact of errors of different types on the safety of the air traffic. The assessment of the threat level is influenced by subjective factors and cannot be expressed precisely. Therefore, the fuzzy reasoning theory has been used. The developed fuzzy model has been used to obtain a tool for simulation of the impact of various factors on traffic safety assessment. The results obtained indicate that the most important determinants of safety are the time when the air traffic controller remains unaware of the breakdown and the total time he/she does not have full knowledge of the traffic situation. It has been found that the key role for the proper operation of the air traffic visualization system and the restoration of full situational awareness is played by self-diagnostic systems that can restore the system’s correct functioning without even the controller being aware of the error occurrence. Their role in ensuring safety might be even greater than redundancy which is commonly used.

Brazilian air traffic controllers exhibit excessive sleepiness.

Science.gov (United States)

Ribas, Valdenilson Ribeiro; de Almeida, Cláudia Ângela Vilela; Martins, Hugo André de Lima; Alves, Carlos Frederico de Oliveira; Alves, Marcos José Pinheiro Cândido; Carneiro, Severino Marcos de Oliveira; Ribas, Valéria Ribeiro; de Vasconcelos, Carlos Augusto Carvalho; Sougey, Everton Botelho; de Castro, Raul Manhães

2011-01-01

Excessive sleepiness (ES) is an increased tendency to initiate involuntary sleep for naps at inappropriate times. The objective of this study was to assess ES in air traffic controllers (ATCo). 45 flight protection professionals were evaluated, comprising 30 ATCo, subdivided into ATCo with ten or more years in the profession (ATCo≥10, n=15) and ATCo with less than ten years in the profession (ATCoair traffic controllers exhibit excessive sleepiness.

Work Practice Simulation of Complex Human-Automation Systems in Safety Critical Situations: The Brahms Generalized berlingen Model

Science.gov (United States)

Clancey, William J.; Linde, Charlotte; Seah, Chin; Shafto, Michael

2013-01-01

The transition from the current air traffic system to the next generation air traffic system will require the introduction of new automated systems, including transferring some functions from air traffic controllers to on­-board automation. This report describes a new design verification and validation (V&V) methodology for assessing aviation safety. The approach involves a detailed computer simulation of work practices that includes people interacting with flight-critical systems. The research is part of an effort to develop new modeling and verification methodologies that can assess the safety of flight-critical systems, system configurations, and operational concepts. The 2002 Ueberlingen mid-air collision was chosen for analysis and modeling because one of the main causes of the accident was one crew's response to a conflict between the instructions of the air traffic controller and the instructions of TCAS, an automated Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System on-board warning system. It thus furnishes an example of the problem of authority versus autonomy. It provides a starting point for exploring authority/autonomy conflict in the larger system of organization, tools, and practices in which the participants' moment-by-moment actions take place. We have developed a general air traffic system model (not a specific simulation of Überlingen events), called the Brahms Generalized Ueberlingen Model (Brahms-GUeM). Brahms is a multi-agent simulation system that models people, tools, facilities/vehicles, and geography to simulate the current air transportation system as a collection of distributed, interactive subsystems (e.g., airports, air-traffic control towers and personnel, aircraft, automated flight systems and air-traffic tools, instruments, crew). Brahms-GUeM can be configured in different ways, called scenarios, such that anomalous events that contributed to the Überlingen accident can be modeled as functioning according to requirements or in an

SIG: Multiple Views on Safety-Critical Automation: Aircraft, Autonomous Vehicles, Air Traffic Management and Satellite Ground Segments Perspectives

Science.gov (United States)

Feary, Michael; Palanque, Philippe; Martinie, Célia; Tscheligi, Manfred

2016-01-01

This SIG focuses on the engineering of automation in interactive critical systems. Automation has already been studied in a number of (sub-) disciplines and application fields: design, human factors, psychology, (software) engineering, aviation, health care, games. One distinguishing feature of the area we are focusing on is that in the field of interactive critical systems properties such as reliability, dependability, fault tolerance are as important as usability, user experience or overall acceptance issues. The SIG targets at two problem areas: first the engineering of the user interaction with (partly-) autonomous systems: how to design, build and assess autonomous behavior, especially in cases where there is a need to represent on the user interface both autonomous and interactive objects. An example of such integration is the representation of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) (where no direct interaction is possible), together with aircrafts (that have to be instructed by an air traffic controller to avoid the UAV). Second the design and engineering of user interaction in general for autonomous objects/systems (for example a cruise control in a car or an autopilot in an aircraft). The goal of the SIG is to raise interest in the CHI community on the general aspects of automation and to identify a community of researchers and practitioners interested in those increasingly prominent issues of interfaces towards (semi)-autonomous systems. The expected audience should be interested in addressing the issues of integration of mainly unconnected research domains to formulate a new joint research agenda.

Air Traffic Control: Weak Computer Security Practices Jeopardize Flight Safety

Science.gov (United States)

1998-05-01

Given the paramount importance of computer security of Air Traffic Control (ATC) systems, Congress asked the General Accounting Office to determine (1) whether the Fedcral Aviation Administration (FAA) is effectively managing physical security at ATC...

Efficient Conversation: The Talk between Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers.

Science.gov (United States)

Simmons, James L.

Two-way radio communications between air traffic controllers using radar on the ground to give airplane pilots instructions are of interest within the developing framework of the sociology of language. The main purpose of air traffic control language is efficient communication to promote flight safety. This study describes the standardized format…

LaGuardia air traffic control tower.

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

To celebrate FAA and its LaGuardia Airport employees past, : present, and future this booklet outlines the airports history and accomplishments and includes copies of some of the photographs in the : air traffic control towers history g...

The Use of the Dynamic Solution Space to Assess Air Traffic Controller Workload

NARCIS (Netherlands)

D'Engelbronner, J.G.; Mulder, M.; Van Paassen, M.M.; De Stigter, S.; Huisman, H.

2010-01-01

Air traffic capacity is mainly bound by air traffic controller workload. In order to effectively find solutions for this problem, off-line pre-experimental workload assessment methods are desirable. In order to better understand the workload associated with air traffic control, previous research

Quantitative safety assessment of air traffic control systems through system control capacity

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Jingjing

Quantitative Safety Assessments (QSA) are essential to safety benefit verification and regulations of developmental changes in safety critical systems like the Air Traffic Control (ATC) systems. Effectiveness of the assessments is particularly desirable today in the safe implementations of revolutionary ATC overhauls like NextGen and SESAR. QSA of ATC systems are however challenged by system complexity and lack of accident data. Extending from the idea "safety is a control problem" in the literature, this research proposes to assess system safety from the control perspective, through quantifying a system's "control capacity". A system's safety performance correlates to this "control capacity" in the control of "safety critical processes". To examine this idea in QSA of the ATC systems, a Control-capacity Based Safety Assessment Framework (CBSAF) is developed which includes two control capacity metrics and a procedural method. The two metrics are Probabilistic System Control-capacity (PSC) and Temporal System Control-capacity (TSC); each addresses an aspect of a system's control capacity. And the procedural method consists three general stages: I) identification of safety critical processes, II) development of system control models and III) evaluation of system control capacity. The CBSAF was tested in two case studies. The first one assesses an en-route collision avoidance scenario and compares three hypothetical configurations. The CBSAF was able to capture the uncoordinated behavior between two means of control, as was observed in a historic midair collision accident. The second case study compares CBSAF with an existing risk based QSA method in assessing the safety benefits of introducing a runway incursion alert system. Similar conclusions are reached between the two methods, while the CBSAF has the advantage of simplicity and provides a new control-based perspective and interpretation to the assessments. The case studies are intended to investigate the

A simulation study of the effects of communication delay on air traffic control

Science.gov (United States)

1990-09-01

This study was conducted to examine the impacts of voice communications delays : characteristic of Voice Switching and Control System (VSCS) and satellite : communications systems on air traffic system performance, controller stress : and workload, a...

Congestion transition in air traffic networks.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bernardo Monechi

Full Text Available Air Transportation represents a very interesting example of a complex techno-social system whose importance has considerably grown in time and whose management requires a careful understanding of the subtle interplay between technological infrastructure and human behavior. Despite the competition with other transportation systems, a growth of air traffic is still foreseen in Europe for the next years. The increase of traffic load could bring the current Air Traffic Network above its capacity limits so that safety standards and performances might not be guaranteed anymore. Lacking the possibility of a direct investigation of this scenario, we resort to computer simulations in order to quantify the disruptive potential of an increase in traffic load. To this end we model the Air Transportation system as a complex dynamical network of flights controlled by humans who have to solve potentially dangerous conflicts by redirecting aircraft trajectories. The model is driven and validated through historical data of flight schedules in a European national airspace. While correctly reproducing actual statistics of the Air Transportation system, e.g., the distribution of delays, the model allows for theoretical predictions. Upon an increase of the traffic load injected in the system, the model predicts a transition from a phase in which all conflicts can be successfully resolved, to a phase in which many conflicts cannot be resolved anymore. We highlight how the current flight density of the Air Transportation system is well below the transition, provided that controllers make use of a special re-routing procedure. While the congestion transition displays a universal scaling behavior, its threshold depends on the conflict solving strategy adopted. Finally, the generality of the modeling scheme introduced makes it a flexible general tool to simulate and control Air Transportation systems in realistic and synthetic scenarios.

Congestion transition in air traffic networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Monechi, Bernardo; Servedio, Vito D P; Loreto, Vittorio

2015-01-01

Air Transportation represents a very interesting example of a complex techno-social system whose importance has considerably grown in time and whose management requires a careful understanding of the subtle interplay between technological infrastructure and human behavior. Despite the competition with other transportation systems, a growth of air traffic is still foreseen in Europe for the next years. The increase of traffic load could bring the current Air Traffic Network above its capacity limits so that safety standards and performances might not be guaranteed anymore. Lacking the possibility of a direct investigation of this scenario, we resort to computer simulations in order to quantify the disruptive potential of an increase in traffic load. To this end we model the Air Transportation system as a complex dynamical network of flights controlled by humans who have to solve potentially dangerous conflicts by redirecting aircraft trajectories. The model is driven and validated through historical data of flight schedules in a European national airspace. While correctly reproducing actual statistics of the Air Transportation system, e.g., the distribution of delays, the model allows for theoretical predictions. Upon an increase of the traffic load injected in the system, the model predicts a transition from a phase in which all conflicts can be successfully resolved, to a phase in which many conflicts cannot be resolved anymore. We highlight how the current flight density of the Air Transportation system is well below the transition, provided that controllers make use of a special re-routing procedure. While the congestion transition displays a universal scaling behavior, its threshold depends on the conflict solving strategy adopted. Finally, the generality of the modeling scheme introduced makes it a flexible general tool to simulate and control Air Transportation systems in realistic and synthetic scenarios.

Air Traffic Management: Civil/Military Systems and Technologies.

Science.gov (United States)

1980-02-01

THE SELECTION AND SCREENING OF AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS James 0. Boone, Ph.D. Chief, Selection & Testing Research Unit Aviation Psychology Laboratory...Intermittent Positive Control (IPC), later renamed Automatic Traffic Advisory and Resolution Service ( ATARS ). The specific surveillance needs identified...in Clementon, New Jersey. Coincident with DABS development is the Automatic Traffic Advisory and Pesolution Service ( ATARS )--a ground-based collision

Air Traffic Control: Immature Software Acquisition Processes Increase FAA System Acquisition Risks

Science.gov (United States)

1997-03-01

The General Accounting Office (GAO) at the request of Congress reviewed (1) : the maturity of Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) Air Traffic Control : (ATC) modernization software acquisition processes, and (2) the steps/actions : FAA has unde...

A passive brain-computer interface application for the mental workload assessment on professional air traffic controllers during realistic air traffic control tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Aricò, P; Borghini, G; Di Flumeri, G; Colosimo, A; Pozzi, S; Babiloni, F

2016-01-01

In the last decades, it has been a fast-growing concept in the neuroscience field. The passive brain-computer interface (p-BCI) systems allow to improve the human-machine interaction (HMI) in operational environments, by using the covert brain activity (eg, mental workload) of the operator. However, p-BCI technology could suffer from some practical issues when used outside the laboratories. In particular, one of the most important limitations is the necessity to recalibrate the p-BCI system each time before its use, to avoid a significant reduction of its reliability in the detection of the considered mental states. The objective of the proposed study was to provide an example of p-BCIs used to evaluate the users' mental workload in a real operational environment. For this purpose, through the facilities provided by the École Nationale de l'Aviation Civile of Toulouse (France), the cerebral activity of 12 professional air traffic control officers (ATCOs) has been recorded while performing high realistic air traffic management scenarios. By the analysis of the ATCOs' brain activity (electroencephalographic signal-EEG) and the subjective workload perception (instantaneous self-assessment) provided by both the examined ATCOs and external air traffic control experts, it has been possible to estimate and evaluate the variation of the mental workload under which the controllers were operating. The results showed (i) a high significant correlation between the neurophysiological and the subjective workload assessment, and (ii) a high reliability over time (up to a month) of the proposed algorithm that was also able to maintain high discrimination accuracies by using a low number of EEG electrodes (~3 EEG channels). In conclusion, the proposed methodology demonstrated the suitability of p-BCI systems in operational environments and the advantages of the neurophysiological measures with respect to the subjective ones. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Analysis of Air Traffic Track Data with the AutoBayes Synthesis System

Science.gov (United States)

Schumann, Johann Martin Philip; Cate, Karen; Lee, Alan G.

2010-01-01

The Next Generation Air Traffic System (NGATS) is aiming to provide substantial computer support for the air traffic controllers. Algorithms for the accurate prediction of aircraft movements are of central importance for such software systems but trajectory prediction has to work reliably in the presence of unknown parameters and uncertainties. We are using the AutoBayes program synthesis system to generate customized data analysis algorithms that process large sets of aircraft radar track data in order to estimate parameters and uncertainties. In this paper, we present, how the tasks of finding structure in track data, estimation of important parameters in climb trajectories, and the detection of continuous descent approaches can be accomplished with compact task-specific AutoBayes specifications. We present an overview of the AutoBayes architecture and describe, how its schema-based approach generates customized analysis algorithms, documented C/C++ code, and detailed mathematical derivations. Results of experiments with actual air traffic control data are discussed.

The Challenges of Field Testing the Traffic Management Advisor (TMA) in an Operational Air Traffic Control Facility

Science.gov (United States)

Hoang, Ty; Swenson, Harry N.

1997-01-01

The Traffic Management Advisor (TMA), the sequence and schedule tool of the Center/TRACON Automation System (CTAS), was evaluated at the Fort Worth Center (ZFW) in the summer of 1996. This paper describes the challenges encountered during the various phases of the TMA field evaluation, which included system (hardware and software) installation, personnel training, and data collection. Operational procedures were developed and applied to the evaluation process that would ensure air safety. The five weeks of field evaluation imposed minimal impact on the hosting facility and provided valuable engineering and human factors data. The collection of data was very much an opportunistic affair, due to dynamic traffic conditions. One measure of the success of the TMA evaluation is that, rather than remove TMA after the evaluation until it could be fully implemented, the prototype TMA is in continual use at ZFW as the fully operational version is readied for implementation.

Is vehicle automation enough to prevent crashes? Role of traffic operations in automated driving environments for traffic safety.

Science.gov (United States)

Jeong, Eunbi; Oh, Cheol; Lee, Seolyoung

2017-07-01

Automated driving systems (ADSs) are expected to prevent traffic accidents caused by driver carelessness on freeways. There is no doubt regarding this safety benefit if all vehicles in the transportation system were equipped with ADSs; however, it is implausible to expect that ADSs will reach 100% market penetration rate (MPR) in the near future. Therefore, the following question arises: 'Can ADSs, which consider only situations in the vicinity of an equipped vehicle, really contribute to a significant reduction in traffic accidents?' To address this issue, the interactions between equipped and unequipped vehicles must be investigated, which is the purpose of this study. This study evaluated traffic safety at different MPRs based on a proposed index to represent the overall rear-end crash risk of the traffic stream. Two approaches were evaluated for adjusting longitudinal vehicle maneuvers: vehicle safety-based maneuvering (VSM), which considers the crash risk of an equipped vehicle and its neighboring vehicles, and traffic safety-based maneuvering (TSM), which considers the overall crash risk in the traffic stream. TSM assumes that traffic operational agencies are able to monitor all the vehicles and to intervene in vehicle maneuvering. An optimization process, which attempts to obtain vehicle maneuvering control parameters to minimize the overall crash risk, is integrated into the proposed evaluation framework. The main purpose of employing the optimization process for vehicle maneuvering in this study is to identify opportunities to improve traffic safety through effective traffic management rather than developing a vehicle control algorithm that can be implemented in practice. The microscopic traffic simulator VISSIM was used to simulate the freeway traffic stream and to conduct systematic evaluations based on the proposed methodology. Both TSM and VSM achieved significant reductions in the potential for rear-end crashes. However, TSM obtained much greater

Trajectory Assessment and Modification Tools for Next Generation Air Traffic Management Operations

Science.gov (United States)

Brasil, Connie; Lee, Paul; Mainini, Matthew; Lee, Homola; Lee, Hwasoo; Prevot, Thomas; Smith, Nancy

2011-01-01

This paper reviews three Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) based high fidelity air traffic control human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulations, with a focus on the expected requirement of enhanced automated trajectory assessment and modification tools to support future air traffic flow management (ATFM) planning positions. The simulations were conducted at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Centers Airspace Operations Laboratory (AOL) in 2009 and 2010. The test airspace for all three simulations assumed the mid-term NextGenEn-Route high altitude environment utilizing high altitude sectors from the Kansas City and Memphis Air Route Traffic Control Centers. Trajectory assessment, modification and coordination decision support tools were developed at the AOL in order to perform future ATFM tasks. Overall tool usage results and user acceptability ratings were collected across three areas of NextGen operatoins to evaluate the tools. In addition to the usefulness and usability feedback, feasibility issues, benefits, and future requirements were also addressed. Overall, the tool sets were rated very useful and usable, and many elements of the tools received high scores and were used frequently and successfully. Tool utilization results in all three HITLs showed both user and system benefits including better airspace throughput, reduced controller workload, and highly effective communication protocols in both full Data Comm and mixed-equipage environments.

Towards an agent based traffic regulation and recommendation system for the on-road air quality control.

Science.gov (United States)

Sadiq, Abderrahmane; El Fazziki, Abdelaziz; Ouarzazi, Jamal; Sadgal, Mohamed

2016-01-01

This paper presents an integrated and adaptive problem-solving approach to control the on-road air quality by modeling the road infrastructure, managing traffic based on pollution level and generating recommendations for road users. The aim is to reduce vehicle emissions in the most polluted road segments and optimizing the pollution levels. For this we propose the use of historical and real time pollution records and contextual data to calculate the air quality index on road networks and generate recommendations for reassigning traffic flow in order to improve the on-road air quality. The resulting air quality indexes are used in the system's traffic network generation, which the cartography is represented by a weighted graph. The weights evolve according to the pollution indexes and path properties and the graph is therefore dynamic. Furthermore, the systems use the available pollution data and meteorological records in order to predict the on-road pollutant levels by using an artificial neural network based prediction model. The proposed approach combines the benefits of multi-agent systems, Big data technology, machine learning tools and the available data sources. For the shortest path searching in the road network, we use the Dijkstra algorithm over Hadoop MapReduce framework. The use Hadoop framework in the data retrieve and analysis process has significantly improved the performance of the proposed system. Also, the agent technology allowed proposing a suitable solution in terms of robustness and agility.

Automated Subsystem Control for Life Support System (ASCLSS)

Science.gov (United States)

Block, Roger F.

1987-01-01

The Automated Subsystem Control for Life Support Systems (ASCLSS) program has successfully developed and demonstrated a generic approach to the automation and control of space station subsystems. The automation system features a hierarchical and distributed real-time control architecture which places maximum controls authority at the lowest or process control level which enhances system autonomy. The ASCLSS demonstration system pioneered many automation and control concepts currently being considered in the space station data management system (DMS). Heavy emphasis is placed on controls hardware and software commonality implemented in accepted standards. The approach demonstrates successfully the application of real-time process and accountability with the subsystem or process developer. The ASCLSS system completely automates a space station subsystem (air revitalization group of the ASCLSS) which moves the crew/operator into a role of supervisory control authority. The ASCLSS program developed over 50 lessons learned which will aide future space station developers in the area of automation and controls..

How to reduce workload--augmented reality to ease the work of air traffic controllers.

Science.gov (United States)

Hofmann, Thomas; König, Christina; Bruder, Ralph; Bergner, Jörg

2012-01-01

In the future the air traffic will rise--the workload of the controllers will do the same. In the BMWi research project, one of the tasks is, how to ensure safe air traffic, and a reasonable workload for the air traffic controllers. In this project it was the goal to find ways how to reduce the workload (and stress) for the controllers to allow safe air traffic, esp. at huge hub-airports by implementing augmented reality visualization and interaction.

Remotely Operated Aircraft (ROA) Impact on the National Airspace System (NAS) Work Package: Automation Impacts of ROA's in the NAS

Science.gov (United States)

2005-01-01

The purpose of this document is to analyze the impact of Remotely Operated Aircraft (ROA) operations on current and planned Air Traffic Control (ATC) automation systems in the En Route, Terminal, and Traffic Flow Management domains. The operational aspects of ROA flight, while similar, are not entirely identical to their manned counterparts and may not have been considered within the time-horizons of the automation tools. This analysis was performed to determine if flight characteristics of ROAs would be compatible with current and future NAS automation tools. Improvements to existing systems / processes are recommended that would give Air Traffic Controllers an indication that a particular aircraft is an ROA and modifications to IFR flight plan processing algorithms and / or designation of airspace where an ROA will be operating for long periods of time.

Eye metrics for task-dependent automation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Imants, P.; Greef, T.E. de

2014-01-01

Future air traffic is expected to grow increasingly, opening up a gap for task dependent automation and adaptive interfaces, helping the Air Traffic Controller to cope with fluctuating workloads. One of the challenging factors in the application of such intelligent systems concerns the question what

Eye Metrics for Task-Dependent Automation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Imants, P.; de Greef, T.F.A.

2014-01-01

Future air traffic is expected to grow increasingly, opening up a gap for task dependent automation and adaptive interfaces, helping the Air Traffic Controller to cope with fluctuating workloads. One of the challenging factors in the application of such intelligent systems concerns the question what

NextGen Technologies on the FAA's Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System

Science.gov (United States)

Witzberger, Kevin; Swenson, Harry; Martin, Lynne; Lin, Melody; Cheng, Jinn-Hwei

2014-01-01

This paper describes the integration, evaluation, and results from a high-fidelity human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulation of key NASA Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration - 1 (ATD- 1) technologies implemented in an enhanced version of the FAA's Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) platform. These ATD-1 technologies include: (1) a NASA enhanced version of the FAA's Time-Based Flow Management, (2) a NASA ground-based automation technology known as controller-managed spacing (CMS), and (3) a NASA advanced avionics airborne technology known as flight-deck interval management (FIM). These ATD-1 technologies have been extensively tested in large-scale HITL simulations using general-purpose workstations to study air transportation technologies. These general purpose workstations perform multiple functions and are collectively referred to as the Multi-Aircraft Control System (MACS). Researchers at NASA Ames Research Center and Raytheon collaborated to augment the STARS platform by including CMS and FIM advisory tools to validate the feasibility of integrating these automation enhancements into the current FAA automation infrastructure. NASA Ames acquired three STARS terminal controller workstations, and then integrated the ATD-1 technologies. HITL simulations were conducted to evaluate the ATD-1 technologies when using the STARS platform. These results were compared with the results obtained when the ATD-1 technologies were tested in the MACS environment. Results collected from the numerical data show acceptably minor differences, and, together with the subjective controller questionnaires showing a trend towards preferring STARS, validate the ATD-1/STARS integration.

Visual and auditory reaction time for air traffic controllers using quantitative electroencephalograph (QEEG) data.

Science.gov (United States)

Abbass, Hussein A; Tang, Jiangjun; Ellejmi, Mohamed; Kirby, Stephen

2014-12-01

The use of quantitative electroencephalograph in the analysis of air traffic controllers' performance can reveal with a high temporal resolution those mental responses associated with different task demands. To understand the relationship between visual and auditory correct responses, reaction time, and the corresponding brain areas and functions, air traffic controllers were given an integrated visual and auditory continuous reaction task. Strong correlations were found between correct responses to the visual target and the theta band in the frontal lobe, the total power in the medial of the parietal lobe and the theta-to-beta ratio in the left side of the occipital lobe. Incorrect visual responses triggered activations in additional bands including the alpha band in the medial of the frontal and parietal lobes, and the Sensorimotor Rhythm in the medial of the parietal lobe. Controllers' responses to visual cues were found to be more accurate but slower than their corresponding performance on auditory cues. These results suggest that controllers are more susceptible to overload when more visual cues are used in the air traffic control system, and more errors are pruned as more auditory cues are used. Therefore, workload studies should be carried out to assess the usefulness of additional cues and their interactions with the air traffic control environment.

False alerts in air traffic control conflict alerting system: is there a "cry wolf" effect?

Science.gov (United States)

Wickens, Christopher D; Rice, Stephen; Keller, David; Hutchins, Shaun; Hughes, Jamie; Clayton, Krisstal

2009-08-01

The aim is to establish the extent to which the high false-alarm rate of air traffic control midair conflict alerts is responsible for a "cry wolf' effect-where true alerts are not responded to and all alerts are delayed in their response. Some aircraft collisions have been partly attributed to the cry wolf effect, and in other domains (health care and systems monitoring), there is a causal connection between false-alarm rate and cry wolf behavior. We hypothesized that a corresponding relationship exists in air traffic control (ATC). Aircraft track and alert system behavior data surrounding 495 conflict alerts were analyzed to identify true and false alerts, trajectory type, and controller behavior. Forty-five percent of the alerts were false, ranging from 0.28 to 0.58. Although centers with more false alerts contributed to more nonresponses, there was no evidence that these were nonresponses to true alerts or that response times were delayed in those centers. Instead, controllers showed desirable anticipatory behavior by issuing trajectory changes prior to the alert. Those trajectory pairs whose conflicts were more difficult to visualize induced more reliance on, and less compliance with, the alerting system. The high false-alarm rate does not appear to induce cry wolf behavior in the context of en route ATC conflict alerts. There is no need to substantially modify conflict alert algorithms, but the conflict alert system may be modified to address difficult-to-visualize conflicts.

Advanced digital computers, controls, and automation technologies for power plants: Proceedings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bhatt, S.C.

1992-08-01

This document is a compilation of the papers that were presented at an EPRI workshop on Advances in Computers, Controls, and Automation Technologies for Power Plants. The workshop, sponsored by EPRI's Nuclear Power Division, took place February 1992. It was attended by 157 representatives from electric utilities, equipment manufacturers, engineering consulting organizations, universities, national laboratories, government agencies and international utilities. More than 40% of the attendees were from utilities representing the majority group. There were 30% attendees from equipment manufacturers and the engineering consulting organizations. The participants from government agencies, universities, and national laboratories were about 10% each. The workshop included a keynote address, 35 technical papers, and vendor's equipment demonstrations. The technical papers described the state-of-the-art in the areas of recent utility digital upgrades such as digital feedwater controllers, steam generator level controllers, integrated plant computer systems, computer aided diagnostics, automated testing and surveillance and other applications. A group of technical papers presented the ongoing B ampersand W PWR integrated plant control system prototype developments with the triple redundant advanced digital control system. Several international papers from France, Japan and U.K. presented their programs on advance power plant design and applications. Significant advances in the control and automation technologies such as adaptive controls, self-tuning methods, neural networks and expert systems were presented by developers, universities, and national laboratories. Individual papers are indexed separately

Development of a High-Fidelity Simulation Environment for Shadow-Mode Assessments of Air Traffic Concepts

Science.gov (United States)

Robinson, John E., III; Lee, Alan; Lai, Chok Fung

2017-01-01

This paper describes the Shadow-Mode Assessment Using Realistic Technologies for the National Airspace System (SMART-NAS) Test Bed. The SMART-NAS Test Bed is an air traffic simulation platform being developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The SMART-NAS Test Bed's core purpose is to conduct high-fidelity, real-time, human-in-the-loop and automation-in-the-loop simulations of current and proposed future air traffic concepts for the United States' Next Generation Air Transportation System called NextGen. The setup, configuration, coordination, and execution of realtime, human-in-the-loop air traffic management simulations are complex, tedious, time intensive, and expensive. The SMART-NAS Test Bed framework is an alternative to the current approach and will provide services throughout the simulation workflow pipeline to help alleviate these shortcomings. The principle concepts to be simulated include advanced gate-to-gate, trajectory-based operations, widespread integration of novel aircraft such as unmanned vehicles, and real-time safety assurance technologies to enable autonomous operations. To make this possible, SNTB will utilize Web-based technologies, cloud resources, and real-time, scalable, communication middleware. This paper describes the SMART-NAS Test Bed's vision, purpose, its concept of use, and the potential benefits, key capabilities, high-level requirements, architecture, software design, and usage.

Hoarseness and vocal tract discomfort and associated risk factors in air traffic controllers.

Science.gov (United States)

Korn, Gustavo Polacow; Villar, Anna Carolina; Azevedo, Renata Rangel

2018-04-05

An air traffic controller is a professional who performs air traffic control functions in air traffic control units and is responsible for controlling the various stages of a flight. To compare hoarseness and vocal tract discomfort and their risk factors among air traffic controllers in the approach control of São Paulo. In a cross-sectional survey, a voice self-evaluation adapted from to self-evaluation prepared by the Brazilian Ministry of Labor for teachers was administered to 76 air traffic controllers at approach control of São Paulo, Brazil. The percentage of hoarseness and vocal tract discomfort was 19.7% and 38.2%, respectively. In relation to air pollution, the percentages of hoarseness and vocal tract discomfort were higher among those who consider their working environment to be intolerable than among those in a comfortable or disturbing environment. The percentage of hoarseness was higher among those who seek medical advice due to vocal complaints and among those who experience difficulty using their voice at work than among those who experience mild or no difficulty. The percentage of vocal tract discomfort was higher among those in a very tense and stressful environment than among those who consider their work environment to be mild or moderately tense and stressful. The percentage of vocal tract discomfort was higher among those who describe themselves as very tense and stressed or tense and stressed than among those who describe themselves as calm. Additionally, the percentage of vocal tract discomfort was higher among those who care about their health. Among air traffic controllers, the percentage of vocal tract discomfort was almost twice that of hoarseness. Both symptoms are prevalent among air traffic controllers who considered their workplace intolerable in terms of air pollution. Vocal tract discomfort was related to a tense and stressful environment, and hoarseness was related to difficulty using the voice at work. Copyright © 2018 Associa

Air traffic control : good progress on interim replacement for outage-plagued system, but risks can be further reduced

Science.gov (United States)

1996-10-01

Certain air traffic control(ATC) centers experienced a series of major outages, : some of which were caused by the Display Channel Complex or DCC-a mainframe : computer system that processes radar and other data into displayable images on : controlle...

Traffic modelling validation of advanced driver assistance systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tongeren, R. van; Gietelink, O.J.; Schutter, B. de; Verhaegen, M.

2007-01-01

This paper presents a microscopic traffic model for the validation of advanced driver assistance systems. This model describes single-lane traffic and is calibrated with data from a field operational test. To illustrate the use of the model, a Monte Carlo simulation of single-lane traffic scenarios

In-Trail Procedure Air Traffic Control Procedures Validation Simulation Study

Science.gov (United States)

Chartrand, Ryan C.; Hewitt, Katrin P.; Sweeney, Peter B.; Graff, Thomas J.; Jones, Kenneth M.

2012-01-01

In August 2007, Airservices Australia (Airservices) and the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) conducted a validation experiment of the air traffic control (ATC) procedures associated with the Automatic Dependant Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) In-Trail Procedure (ITP). ITP is an Airborne Traffic Situation Awareness (ATSA) application designed for near-term use in procedural airspace in which ADS-B data are used to facilitate climb and descent maneuvers. NASA and Airservices conducted the experiment in Airservices simulator in Melbourne, Australia. Twelve current operational air traffic controllers participated in the experiment, which identified aspects of the ITP that could be improved (mainly in the communication and controller approval process). Results showed that controllers viewed the ITP as valid and acceptable. This paper describes the experiment design and results.

Launching automated rotary parking system: Towards traffic congestion free Dhaka city

Science.gov (United States)

Islam, Mohummad Shariful; Tithi, Afshana Morshed; Hossain, Farzad; Shetu, Rifat Sultana; Amin, S. M. Abdullah Al; Chowdhury, Shakia Zannatul Ferdous

2017-12-01

Bangladesh is the most densely populated city in the whole world, which is visible more in the capital city Dhaka. People have to suffer and valuable times are being wasted for this chronic quandary. Lack of proper planning of the city, different speed vehicles on the same road, over population, inadequate road space, unplanned stoppage or parking etc. are responsible for causing the traffic congestion in Dhaka City. Among those insufficient/unplanned parking system is one of the main reasons for causing traffic congestion. The automated rotary car parking system is the best and suitable because of its less utilization of space compared to other systems. It is a friendly parking system due to the non-utilization of noise/pollution related mechanism. The aim of this paper is to develop an automated car parking system with a minimum cost for reducing congestion in Dhaka city.

Forced versus free traffic in an automated milking system

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Munksgaard, Lene; Rushen, J.; de Passillé, A.M.

2011-01-01

Cows in automated milking systems with free access to feeders sometimes show a reduced use of the robotic milkers, while forced traffic where cows have to pass through the robot to reach the feeders may reduce feeding time and frequency. We examined two groups of 35 lactating cows. For 21 d, one...

Using spatial context to support prospective memory in simulated air traffic control.

Science.gov (United States)

Loft, Shayne; Finnerty, Dannielle; Remington, Roger W

2011-12-01

The aim was to examine whether prospective memory error and response costs to ongoing tasks in an air traffic control simulation could be reduced by providing spatial context. Prospective memory refers to remembering to perform an intended action at an appropriate point in the future. Failures of prospective memory can occur in air traffic control. For this study, three conditions of participants performed an air traffic control task that required them to accept and hand off aircraft and to prevent conflicts. The prospective memory task required participants to remember to press an alternative key rather than the routine key when accepting target aircraft. A red line separated the display into upper and lower regions. Participants in the context condition were told that the prospective memory instruction would apply only to aircraft approaching from one region (upper or lower). Those in the standard condition were not provided this information. In the control condition, participants did not have to perform the prospective memory task. In the context condition, participants made fewer prospective memory errors than did those in the standard condition and made faster acceptance decisions for aircraft approaching from irrelevant compared with relevant regions. Costs to hand-off decision time were also reduced in the context condition. Spatial context provided no benefit to conflict detection. Participants could partially localize their allocation of attentional resources to the prospective memory task to relevant display regions. The findings are potentially applicable to air traffic control, whereby regularities in airspace structure and standard traffic flows allow controllers to anticipate the location of specific air traffic events.

TASAR Flight Trial 2: Assessment of Air Traffic Controller Acceptability of TASAR Requests

Science.gov (United States)

Idris, Husni; Enea, Gabriele

2016-01-01

In support of the Flight Trial (FT-2) of NASA's prototype of the Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR) concept, observations were conducted at the air traffic facilities to identify and assess the main factors that affect the acceptability of pilot requests by air traffic controllers. Two observers shadowed air traffic controllers at the Atlanta (ZTL) and Jacksonville (ZJX) air traffic control centers as the test flight pilot made pre-scripted requests to invoke acceptability issues and then they interviewed the observed and other controllers voluntarily. Fifty controllers were interviewed with experience ranging from one to thirty-five years. All interviewed controllers were enthusiastic about the technology and accounting for sector boundaries in pilot requests, particularly if pilots can be made aware of high workload situations. All interviewed controllers accept more than fifty percent of pilot requests; forty percent of them reject less than ten percent of requests. The most common reason for rejecting requests is conflicting with traffic followed by violating letters of agreement (LOAs) and negatively impacting neighboring sector workload, major arrival and departure flows and flow restrictions. Thirty-six requests were made during the test, eight of which were rejected due to: the aircraft already handed off to another sector, violating LOA, opposing traffic, intruding into an active special use airspace (SUA), intruding into another center, weather, and unfamiliarity with the requested waypoint. Nine requests were accepted with delay mostly because the controller needed to locate unfamiliar waypoints or to coordinate with other controllers.

Processes mediating expertise in air traffic control

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van Meeuwen, Ludo; Jarodzka, Halszka; Brand-Gruwel, Saskia; Van Merriënboer, Jeroen; De Bock, Jeano; Kirschner, Paul A.

2011-01-01

Van Meeuwen, L. W., Jarodzka, H., Brand-Gruwel, S., Van Merriënboer, J. J. G., De Bock, J. J. P. R., & Kirschner, P. A. (2010, September). Processes mediating expertise in air traffic control. Poster presented at the European Association for Aviation Psychology Conference, Budapest.

Urban Traffic Signal System Control Structural Optimization Based on Network Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li Wang

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Advanced urban traffic signal control systems such as SCOOT and SCATS normally coordinate traffic network using multilevel hierarchical control mechanism. In this mechanism, several key intersections will be selected from traffic signal network and the network will be divided into different control subareas. Traditionally, key intersection selection and control subareas division are executed according to dynamic traffic counts and link length between intersections, which largely rely on traffic engineers’ experience. However, it omits important inherent characteristics of traffic network topology. In this paper, we will apply network analysis approach into these two aspects for traffic system control structure optimization. Firstly, the modified C-means clustering algorithm will be proposed to assess the importance of intersections in traffic network and furthermore determine the key intersections based on three indexes instead of merely on traffic counts in traditional methods. Secondly, the improved network community discovery method will be used to give more reasonable evidence in traffic control subarea division. Finally, to test the effectiveness of network analysis approach, a hardware-in-loop simulation environment composed of regional traffic control system, microsimulation software and signal controller hardware, will be built. Both traditional method and proposed approach will be implemented on simulation test bed to evaluate traffic operation performance indexes, for example, travel time, stop times, delay and average vehicle speed. Simulation results show that the proposed network analysis approach can improve the traffic control system operation performance effectively.

The Effectiveness of Yoga on Spiritual Intelligence in Air Traffic Controllers of Tehran Flight Control Center

Science.gov (United States)

Safara, Maryam; Ghasemi, Pejman

2017-01-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of yoga on spiritual intelligence in air traffic controllers in Tehran flight control center. This was a quasi-experimental research and the study population includes all air traffic controllers in Tehran flight control center. The sample consisted of 40 people of the study population that were…

Automated mixed traffic vehicle design AMTV 2

Science.gov (United States)

Johnston, A. R.; Marks, R. A.; Cassell, P. L.

1982-01-01

The design of an improved and enclosed Automated Mixed Traffic Transit (AMTT) vehicle is described. AMTT is an innovative concept for low-speed tram-type transit in which suitable vehicles are equipped with sensors and controls to permit them to operate in an automated mode on existing road or walkway surfaces. The vehicle chassis and body design are presented in terms of sketches and photographs. The functional design of the sensing and control system is presented, and modifications which could be made to the baseline design for improved performance, in particular to incorporate a 20-mph capability, are also discussed. The vehicle system is described at the block-diagram-level of detail. Specifications and parameter values are given where available.

Evaluation of diversion strategies in the context of advanced traffic management systems (ATMS) for an urban traffic corridor with heterogeneous traffic

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Korlapati, D.R.

2007-07-01

Due to urbanization and accelerated growth in vehicular traffic, most big cities in India face problems related to traffic management resulting in severe congestion, pollution, and a high rate of accidents during peak hours. Lane blocking incidents on arterials or urban traffic corridors cause major disruption to traffic flow. Peak hour congestion with low average speeds and high accident rates are commonly associated with traffic in major cities in India. The situation is deteriorating further as creation of new facilities are almost impossible, with resource and space constraints. In such scenarios, application of advanced technologies seems to offer hope. One such application area is Advanced Traffic Management Systems (ATMS), a component of intelligent transportation system (ITS). Due to the unique traffic characteristics prevailing in India, the application of such systems needs to first be evaluated before implementation. This paper proposed a research methodology for the evaluation of diversion strategies in the context of ATMS for an urban corridor in India. The evaluation framework combined several relevant modules related to various aspects of traffic control, surveillance and advisory. As part of this study, a simulation model and a simulation optimization model were developed. The simulation model was microscopic in nature and captured the driver behaviour and traffic characteristics realistically by modeling the complex interactions among vehicles traversing a corridor. It was concluded that the results and observations were useful indicators to gauge the potential success of diversion plans. 10 refs., 1 tab., 2 figs.

Strategic Air Traffic Planning Using Eulerian Route Based Modeling and Optimization

Science.gov (United States)

Bombelli, Alessandro

Due to a soaring air travel growth in the last decades, air traffic management has become increasingly challenging. As a consequence, planning tools are being devised to help human decision-makers achieve a better management of air traffic. Planning tools are divided into two categories, strategic and tactical. Strategic planning generally addresses a larger planning domain and is performed days to hours in advance. Tactical planning is more localized and is performed hours to minutes in advance. An aggregate route model for strategic air traffic flow management is presented. It is an Eulerian model, describing the flow between cells of unidirectional point-to-point routes. Aggregate routes are created from flight trajectory data based on similarity measures. Spatial similarity is determined using the Frechet distance. The aggregate routes approximate actual well-traveled traffic patterns. By specifying the model resolution, an appropriate balance between model accuracy and model dimension can be achieved. For a particular planning horizon, during which weather is expected to restrict the flow, a procedure for designing airborne reroutes and augmenting the traffic flow model is developed. The dynamics of the traffic flow on the resulting network take the form of a discrete-time, linear time-invariant system. The traffic flow controls are ground holding, pre-departure rerouting and airborne rerouting. Strategic planning--determining how the controls should be used to modify the future traffic flow when local capacity violations are anticipated--is posed as an integer programming problem of minimizing a weighted sum of flight delays subject to control and capacity constraints. Several tests indicate the effectiveness of the modeling and strategic planning approach. In the final, most challenging, test, strategic planning is demonstrated for the six western-most Centers of the 22-Center national airspace. The planning time horizon is four hours long, and there is

Processes mediating expertise in air traffic control

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van Meeuwen, Ludo; Jarodzka, Halszka; Brand-Gruwel, Saskia; Van Merriënboer, Jeroen; De Bock, Jeano; Kirschner, Paul A.

2010-01-01

Van Meeuwen, L., Jarodzka, H., Brand-Gruwel, S., Van Merriënboer, J. J. G., De Bock, J. J. P. R., & Kirschner, P. A. (2010, August). Processes mediating expertise in air traffic control. Meeting of the EARLI SIG6/7 Instructional Design and Learning and Instruction with Computers, Ulm, Germany.

THE REMOTE AND MOBILE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL TOWER AND ITS POSSIBLE APPLICATION TO THE OPERATIONAL AREA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tímea VAS

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The concept of remote and mobile Air Traffic Control Tower (ATC TWR and its development has started in Europe, Australia and also in the USA, in order to improve the efficiency of Air Traffic Management (ATM systems in terms of air transportation safety. These new technologies are applicable in many countries in peace time, but on mobility reasons these are promoted to achieve commitments in the operational area. This article describes the devices and range of equipment of mobile and remote tower, and their specifications, which can even serve a medium sized airport, furthermore examines, whether how can those provide the air traffic services at an operational airfield.

Aviation safety and automation technology for subsonic transports

Science.gov (United States)

Albers, James A.

1991-01-01

Discussed here are aviation safety human factors and air traffic control (ATC) automation research conducted at the NASA Ames Research Center. Research results are given in the areas of flight deck and ATC automations, displays and warning systems, crew coordination, and crew fatigue and jet lag. Accident investigation and an incident reporting system that is used to guide the human factors research is discussed. A design philosophy for human-centered automation is given, along with an evaluation of automation on advanced technology transports. Intelligent error tolerant systems such as electronic checklists are discussed along with design guidelines for reducing procedure errors. The data on evaluation of Crew Resource Management (CRM) training indicates highly significant positive changes in appropriate flight deck behavior and more effective use of available resources for crew members receiving the training.

Air Traffic Control Officer AFSC 13MX OSSN 2335

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

1999-01-01

The Air Traffic Control Officer utilization field was surveyed to better understand the utilization of AFSC 1 3MX personnel, validate training requirements, empirically determine career progression...

Characterization of Visual Scanning Patterns in Air Traffic Control.

Science.gov (United States)

McClung, Sarah N; Kang, Ziho

2016-01-01

Characterization of air traffic controllers' (ATCs') visual scanning strategies is a challenging issue due to the dynamic movement of multiple aircraft and increasing complexity of scanpaths (order of eye fixations and saccades) over time. Additionally, terminologies and methods are lacking to accurately characterize the eye tracking data into simplified visual scanning strategies linguistically expressed by ATCs. As an intermediate step to automate the characterization classification process, we (1) defined and developed new concepts to systematically filter complex visual scanpaths into simpler and more manageable forms and (2) developed procedures to map visual scanpaths with linguistic inputs to reduce the human judgement bias during interrater agreement. The developed concepts and procedures were applied to investigating the visual scanpaths of expert ATCs using scenarios with different aircraft congestion levels. Furthermore, oculomotor trends were analyzed to identify the influence of aircraft congestion on scan time and number of comparisons among aircraft. The findings show that (1) the scanpaths filtered at the highest intensity led to more consistent mapping with the ATCs' linguistic inputs, (2) the pattern classification occurrences differed between scenarios, and (3) increasing aircraft congestion caused increased scan times and aircraft pairwise comparisons. The results provide a foundation for better characterizing complex scanpaths in a dynamic task and automating the analysis process.

Controller recovery from equipment failures in air traffic control: A framework for the quantitative assessment of the recovery context

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Subotic, Branka; Schuster, Wolfgang; Majumdar, Arnab; Ochieng, Washington

2014-01-01

Air Traffic Control (ATC) involves a complex interaction of human operators (primarily air traffic controllers), equipment and procedures. On the rare occasions when equipment malfunctions, controllers play a crucial role in the recovery process of the ATC system for continued safe operation. Research on human performance in other safety critical industries using human reliability assessment techniques has shown that the context in which recovery from failures takes place has a significant influence on the outcome of the process. This paper investigates the importance of context in which air traffic controller recovery from equipment failures takes place, defining it in terms of 20 Recovery Influencing Factors (RIFs). The RIFs are used to develop a novel approach for the quantitative assessment of the recovery context based on a metric referred to as the Recovery Context Indicator (RCI). The method is validated by a series of simulation exercises conducted at a specific ATC Centre. The proposed method is useful to assess recovery enhancement approaches within ATC centres

ROLE OF PEDAGOGY COMPETENCE OF A CONTROLLER-TRAINER IN SIMU-TRAINING OF AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

О. Петращук

2012-04-01

Full Text Available The article focuses on the issue of pedagogy competence of an ATCO-trainer as a constituent of hisoverall professional competency/capacity to provide quality SIMU- training of the air traffic controllers. Thecurrent University curriculum for abinitio controllers does not provide developing of the pedagogicalcompetence. But it is requested very much when an air traffic controller is employed as a controller-trainerfor SIMU-training. It is suggested to include pedagogical science as a course in the University programme

Data mining of air traffic control operational errors

Science.gov (United States)

2006-01-01

In this paper we present the results of : applying data mining techniques to identify patterns and : anomalies in air traffic control operational errors (OEs). : Reducing the OE rate is of high importance and remains a : challenge in the aviation saf...

Problems in air traffic management. VII., Job training performance of air traffic control specialists - measurement, structure, and prediction.

Science.gov (United States)

1965-07-01

A statistical study of training- and job-performance measures of several hundred Air Traffic Control Specialists (ATCS) representing Enroute, Terminal, and Flight Service Station specialties revealed that training-performance measures reflected: : 1....

The realistic consideration of human factors in model based simulation tools for the air traffic control domain.

Science.gov (United States)

Duca, Gabriella; Attaianese, Erminia

2012-01-01

Advanced Air Traffic Management (ATM) concepts related to automation, airspace organization and operational procedures are driven by the overall goal to increase ATM system performance. Independently on the nature and/or impact of envisaged changes (e.g. from a short term procedure adjustment to a very long term operational concept or aid tools completion), the preliminary assessment of possible gains in airspace/airport capacity, safety and cost-effectiveness is done by running Model Based Simulations (MBSs, also known as Fast Time Simulations - FTS). Being a not human-in-the-loop technique, the reliability of a MBS results depend on the accuracy and significance of modeled human factors. Despite that, it can be observed in the practice that modeling tools commonly assume a generalized standardization of human behaviors and tasks and consider a very few range of work environment factors that, in the reality, affect the actual human-system performance. The present paper is aimed at opening a discussion about the possibility to keep task description and related weight at a high/general level, suitable for an efficient use of MBSs and, at the same time, increasing simulations reliability adopting some adjustment coming from the elaboration of further variables related to the human aspects of controllers workload.

32 CFR 245.17 - U.S. civil and military air traffic control facilities.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 32 National Defense 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false U.S. civil and military air traffic control facilities. 245.17 Section 245.17 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE (CONTINUED) MISCELLANEOUS PLAN FOR THE EMERGENCY SECURITY CONTROL OF AIR TRAFFIC (ESCAT) Procedures for Implementation of ESCAT §...

Analysis of the work of air traffic controllers of the approach control area (APP) of Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Science.gov (United States)

Vargas, C V; Guimarães, L B de M; Sant'Anna, A M O

2012-01-01

This article presents a study on the activities of the air traffic controllers of the Approach Control Area (APP) of Porto Alegre, Brazil, in different real scenarios. Based on interviews, questionnaires and the analysis of film of real scenes, the following were identified and analyzed: i) the perceptions of risk and complexity of the different air traffic scenes observed; ii) the cognitive factors (knowledge, strategy and attention dynamics) involved in the task and iii) the perception of the controller's workload. The results showed that the task complexity depends on the weather conditions, the number and type of aircraft in observation and that the controllers perceive the scenes in a similar way irrespective of their time in the profession and the type of control (radar or coordination). Attention is the cognitive factor with the greatest impact on the work and mental demand has the greatest impact on workload followed by time demand. The literature on the controllers work in Brazil is scarce and, therefore, this study aimed to contribute to the understanding of the work in one APP in order to promote future changes in the very problematic Brazilian air traffic system.

Automated Operations Development for Advanced Exploration Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Haddock, Angie T.; Stetson, Howard

2012-01-01

Automated space operations command and control software development and its implementation must be an integral part of the vehicle design effort. The software design must encompass autonomous fault detection, isolation, recovery capabilities and also provide "single button" intelligent functions for the crew. Development, operations and safety approval experience with the Timeliner system onboard the International Space Station (ISS), which provided autonomous monitoring with response and single command functionality of payload systems, can be built upon for future automated operations as the ISS Payload effort was the first and only autonomous command and control system to be in continuous execution (6 years), 24 hours a day, 7 days a week within a crewed spacecraft environment. Utilizing proven capabilities from the ISS Higher Active Logic (HAL) System, along with the execution component design from within the HAL 9000 Space Operating System, this design paper will detail the initial HAL System software architecture and interfaces as applied to NASA's Habitat Demonstration Unit (HDU) in support of the Advanced Exploration Systems, Autonomous Mission Operations project. The development and implementation of integrated simulators within this development effort will also be detailed and is the first step in verifying the HAL 9000 Integrated Test-Bed Component [2] designs effectiveness. This design paper will conclude with a summary of the current development status and future development goals as it pertains to automated command and control for the HDU.

Unmanned Aerial Systems Traffic Management (UTM): Safely Enabling UAS Operations in Low-Altitude Airspace

Science.gov (United States)

Rios, Joseph

2016-01-01

Currently, there is no established infrastructure to enable and safely manage the widespread use of low-altitude airspace and UAS flight operations. Given this, and understanding that the FAA faces a mandate to modernize the present air traffic management system through computer automation and significantly reduce the number of air traffic controllers by FY 2020, the FAA maintains that a comprehensive, yet fully automated UAS traffic management (UTM) system for low-altitude airspace is needed. The concept of UTM is to begin by leveraging concepts from the system of roads, lanes, stop signs, rules and lights that govern vehicles on the ground today. Building on its legacy of work in air traffic management (ATM), NASA is working with industry to develop prototype technologies for a UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system that would evolve airspace integration procedures for enabling safe, efficient low-altitude flight operations that autonomously manage UAS operating in an approved low-altitude airspace environment. UTM is a cloud-based system that will autonomously manage all traffic at low altitudes to include UASs being operated beyond visual line of sight of an operator. UTM would thus enable safe and efficient flight operations by providing fully integrated traffic management services such as airspace design, corridors, dynamic geofencing, severe weather and wind avoidance, congestion management, terrain avoidance, route planning re-routing, separation management, sequencing spacing, and contingency management. UTM removes the need for human operators to continuously monitor aircraft operating in approved areas. NASA envisions concepts for two types of UTM systems. The first would be a small portable system, which could be moved between geographical areas in support of operations such as precision agriculture and public safety. The second would be a Persistent system, which would support low-altitude operations in an approved area by providing continuous automated

Air Traffic Controller Training at the FAA Academy

Science.gov (United States)

Cummings, Roy J.

1970-01-01

Describes air traffic controller training by discussing: (1) job description, (2) centralized training, (3) method of training, (4) laboratory arrangement, (5) staffing, (6) curriculum development, (7) staff training, (8) student reaction, and (9) training results and suggested improvements. Training Technology is a quarterly supplement to…

Air System Information Management

Science.gov (United States)

Filman, Robert E.

2004-01-01

I flew to Washington last week, a trip rich in distributed information management. Buying tickets, at the gate, in flight, landing and at the baggage claim, myriad messages about my reservation, the weather, our flight plans, gates, bags and so forth flew among a variety of travel agency, airline and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) computers and personnel. By and large, each kind of information ran on a particular application, often specialized to own data formats and communications network. I went to Washington to attend an FAA meeting on System-Wide Information Management (SWIM) for the National Airspace System (NAS) (http://www.nasarchitecture.faa.gov/Tutorials/NAS101.cfm). NAS (and its information infrastructure, SWIM) is an attempt to bring greater regularity, efficiency and uniformity to the collection of stovepipe applications now used to manage air traffic. Current systems hold information about flight plans, flight trajectories, weather, air turbulence, current and forecast weather, radar summaries, hazardous condition warnings, airport and airspace capacity constraints, temporary flight restrictions, and so forth. Information moving among these stovepipe systems is usually mediated by people (for example, air traffic controllers) or single-purpose applications. People, whose intelligence is critical for difficult tasks and unusual circumstances, are not as efficient as computers for tasks that can be automated. Better information sharing can lead to higher system capacity, more efficient utilization and safer operations. Better information sharing through greater automation is possible though not necessarily easy.

Human-Automation Interaction Design for Adaptive Cruise Control Systems of Ground Vehicles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hwisoo Eom

2015-06-01

Full Text Available A majority of recently developed advanced vehicles have been equipped with various automated driver assistance systems, such as adaptive cruise control (ACC and lane keeping assistance systems. ACC systems have several operational modes, and drivers can be unaware of the mode in which they are operating. Because mode confusion is a significant human error factor that contributes to traffic accidents, it is necessary to develop user interfaces for ACC systems that can reduce mode confusion. To meet this requirement, this paper presents a new human-automation interaction design methodology in which the compatibility of the machine and interface models is determined using the proposed criteria, and if the models are incompatible, one or both of the models is/are modified to make them compatible. To investigate the effectiveness of our methodology, we designed two new interfaces by separately modifying the machine model and the interface model and then performed driver-in-the-loop experiments. The results showed that modifying the machine model provides a more compact, acceptable, effective, and safe interface than modifying the interface model.

Human-Automation Interaction Design for Adaptive Cruise Control Systems of Ground Vehicles.

Science.gov (United States)

Eom, Hwisoo; Lee, Sang Hun

2015-06-12

A majority of recently developed advanced vehicles have been equipped with various automated driver assistance systems, such as adaptive cruise control (ACC) and lane keeping assistance systems. ACC systems have several operational modes, and drivers can be unaware of the mode in which they are operating. Because mode confusion is a significant human error factor that contributes to traffic accidents, it is necessary to develop user interfaces for ACC systems that can reduce mode confusion. To meet this requirement, this paper presents a new human-automation interaction design methodology in which the compatibility of the machine and interface models is determined using the proposed criteria, and if the models are incompatible, one or both of the models is/are modified to make them compatible. To investigate the effectiveness of our methodology, we designed two new interfaces by separately modifying the machine model and the interface model and then performed driver-in-the-loop experiments. The results showed that modifying the machine model provides a more compact, acceptable, effective, and safe interface than modifying the interface model.

Feasibility of a Networked Air Traffic Infrastructure Validation Environment for Advanced NextGen Concepts

Science.gov (United States)

McCormack, Michael J.; Gibson, Alec K.; Dennis, Noah E.; Underwood, Matthew C.; Miller,Lana B.; Ballin, Mark G.

2013-01-01

Abstract-Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) applications reliant upon aircraft data links such as Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) offer a sweeping modernization of the National Airspace System (NAS), but the aviation stakeholder community has not yet established a positive business case for equipage and message content standards remain in flux. It is necessary to transition promising Air Traffic Management (ATM) Concepts of Operations (ConOps) from simulation environments to full-scale flight tests in order to validate user benefits and solidify message standards. However, flight tests are prohibitively expensive and message standards for Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) systems cannot support many advanced ConOps. It is therefore proposed to simulate future aircraft surveillance and communications equipage and employ an existing commercial data link to exchange data during dedicated flight tests. This capability, referred to as the Networked Air Traffic Infrastructure Validation Environment (NATIVE), would emulate aircraft data links such as ADS-B using in-flight Internet and easily-installed test equipment. By utilizing low-cost equipment that is easy to install and certify for testing, advanced ATM ConOps can be validated, message content standards can be solidified, and new standards can be established through full-scale flight trials without necessary or expensive equipage or extensive flight test preparation. This paper presents results of a feasibility study of the NATIVE concept. To determine requirements, six NATIVE design configurations were developed for two NASA ConOps that rely on ADS-B. The performance characteristics of three existing in-flight Internet services were investigated to determine whether performance is adequate to support the concept. Next, a study of requisite hardware and software was conducted to examine whether and how the NATIVE concept might be realized. Finally, to determine a business case

Safely towards self-driving vehicles : new opportunities new risks and new challenges during the automation of the traffic system.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nes, C.N. van & Duivenvoorden, C.W.A.E.

2017-01-01

There are more and more systems on the market to support the driver in his vehicle. Step by step the automation of our vehicles increases, the traffic system is in a transition towards self-driving vehicles. The automation offers opportunities to make our traffic safer, cleaner and more efficient.

Automated Big Traffic Analytics for Cyber Security

OpenAIRE

Miao, Yuantian; Ruan, Zichan; Pan, Lei; Wang, Yu; Zhang, Jun; Xiang, Yang

2018-01-01

Network traffic analytics technology is a cornerstone for cyber security systems. We demonstrate its use through three popular and contemporary cyber security applications in intrusion detection, malware analysis and botnet detection. However, automated traffic analytics faces the challenges raised by big traffic data. In terms of big data's three characteristics --- volume, variety and velocity, we review three state of the art techniques to mitigate the key challenges including real-time tr...

Using Historical Data to Automatically Identify Air-Traffic Control Behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Lauderdale, Todd A.; Wu, Yuefeng; Tretto, Celeste

2014-01-01

This project seeks to develop statistical-based machine learning models to characterize the types of errors present when using current systems to predict future aircraft states. These models will be data-driven - based on large quantities of historical data. Once these models are developed, they will be used to infer situations in the historical data where an air-traffic controller intervened on an aircraft's route, even when there is no direct recording of this action.

Learning styles: The learning methods of air traffic control students

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Dontae L.

In the world of aviation, air traffic controllers are an integral part in the overall level of safety that is provided. With a number of controllers reaching retirement age, the Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative (AT-CTI) was created to provide a stronger candidate pool. However, AT-CTI Instructors have found that a number of AT-CTI students are unable to memorize types of aircraft effectively. This study focused on the basic learning styles (auditory, visual, and kinesthetic) of students and created a teaching method to try to increase memorization in AT-CTI students. The participants were asked to take a questionnaire to determine their learning style. Upon knowing their learning styles, participants attended two classroom sessions. The participants were given a presentation in the first class, and divided into a control and experimental group for the second class. The control group was given the same presentation from the first classroom session while the experimental group had a group discussion and utilized Middle Tennessee State University's Air Traffic Control simulator to learn the aircraft types. Participants took a quiz and filled out a survey, which tested the new teaching method. An appropriate statistical analysis was applied to determine if there was a significant difference between the control and experimental groups. The results showed that even though the participants felt that the method increased their learning, there was no significant difference between the two groups.

FAA Air Traffic Control Operations Concepts. Volume 4. TAAS (Terminal Advanced Automation System) Terminal Controllers

Science.gov (United States)

1988-07-29

manually under controller comiand. 40.3.7.1.2.1.1.2-19 b. Ordering - In manual ordering , the 780 controller shall have the capability to put o new FOE...7.1.2.1.1.2-09 a. Posting - This orgonization of FOEs shall 780 be provided at the option of the controller. 40.3.7.1.2.1.1.2-19 b. Ordering - In manual ... ordering , the 780 controller shall have the capability to put o new FOE in the appropriate place in a list and to move FOEs with respect to one another

Cognitive Task Analysis of Prioritization in Air Traffic Control.

Science.gov (United States)

Redding, Richard E.; And Others

A cognitive task analysis was performed to analyze the key cognitive components of the en route air traffic controllers' jobs. The goals were to ascertain expert mental models and decision-making strategies and to identify important differences in controller knowledge, skills, and mental models as a function of expertise. Four groups of…

Fixed Point Learning Based Intelligent Traffic Control System

Science.gov (United States)

Zongyao, Wang; Cong, Sui; Cheng, Shao

2017-10-01

Fixed point learning has become an important tool to analyse large scale distributed system such as urban traffic network. This paper presents a fixed point learning based intelligence traffic network control system. The system applies convergence property of fixed point theorem to optimize the traffic flow density. The intelligence traffic control system achieves maximum road resources usage by averaging traffic flow density among the traffic network. The intelligence traffic network control system is built based on decentralized structure and intelligence cooperation. No central control is needed to manage the system. The proposed system is simple, effective and feasible for practical use. The performance of the system is tested via theoretical proof and simulations. The results demonstrate that the system can effectively solve the traffic congestion problem and increase the vehicles average speed. It also proves that the system is flexible, reliable and feasible for practical use.

Simulation of traffic control signal systems

Science.gov (United States)

Connolly, P. J.; Concannon, P. A.; Ricci, R. C.

1974-01-01

In recent years there has been considerable interest in the development and testing of control strategies for networks of urban traffic signal systems by simulation. Simulation is an inexpensive and timely method for evaluating the effect of these traffic control strategies since traffic phenomena are too complex to be defined by analytical models and since a controlled experiment may be hazardous, expensive, and slow in producing meaningful results. This paper describes the application of an urban traffic corridor program, to evaluate the effectiveness of different traffic control strategies for the Massachusetts Avenue TOPICS Project.

A Course in English for Air Traffic Controllers.

Science.gov (United States)

McCann, Paul; Thompson, Lesley

A description is provided of a course, developed by the British Council in Madrid, Spain, to improve the English language training for trainee air traffic services personnel as a result of an increased demand for trained controllers over the next few years. The course aims to teach students in the areas of standard radiotelephony, non-routine…

Will Automated Vehicles Negatively Impact Traffic Flow?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. C. Calvert

2017-01-01

Full Text Available With low-level vehicle automation already available, there is a necessity to estimate its effects on traffic flow, especially if these could be negative. A long gradual transition will occur from manual driving to automated driving, in which many yet unknown traffic flow dynamics will be present. These effects have the potential to increasingly aid or cripple current road networks. In this contribution, we investigate these effects using an empirically calibrated and validated simulation experiment, backed up with findings from literature. We found that low-level automated vehicles in mixed traffic will initially have a small negative effect on traffic flow and road capacities. The experiment further showed that any improvement in traffic flow will only be seen at penetration rates above 70%. Also, the capacity drop appeared to be slightly higher with the presence of low-level automated vehicles. The experiment further investigated the effect of bottleneck severity and truck shares on traffic flow. Improvements to current traffic models are recommended and should include a greater detail and understanding of driver-vehicle interaction, both in conventional and in mixed traffic flow. Further research into behavioural shifts in driving is also recommended due to limited data and knowledge of these dynamics.

Varying Levels of Automation on UAS Operator Responses to Traffic Resolution Advisories in Civil Airspace

Science.gov (United States)

Kenny, Caitlin; Fern, Lisa

2012-01-01

Continuing demand for the use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) has put increasing pressure on operations in civil airspace. The need to fly UAS in the National Airspace System (NAS) in order to perform missions vital to national security and defense, emergency management, and science is increasing at a rapid pace. In order to ensure safe operations in the NAS, operators of unmanned aircraft, like those of manned aircraft, may be required to maintain separation assurance and avoid loss of separation with other aircraft while performing their mission tasks. This experiment investigated the effects of varying levels of automation on UAS operator performance and workload while responding to conflict resolution instructions provided by the Tactical Collision Avoidance System II (TCAS II) during a UAS mission in high-density airspace. The purpose of this study was not to investigate the safety of using TCAS II on UAS, but rather to examine the effect of automation on the ability of operators to respond to traffic collision alerts. Six licensed pilots were recruited to act as UAS operators for this study. Operators were instructed to follow a specified mission flight path, while maintaining radio contact with Air Traffic Control and responding to TCAS II resolution advisories. Operators flew four, 45 minute, experimental missions with four different levels of automation: Manual, Knobs, Management by Exception, and Fully Automated. All missions included TCAS II Resolution Advisories (RAs) that required operator attention and rerouting. Operator compliance and reaction time to RAs was measured, and post-run NASA-TLX ratings were collected to measure workload. Results showed significantly higher compliance rates, faster responses to TCAS II alerts, as well as less preemptive operator actions when higher levels of automation are implemented. Physical and Temporal ratings of workload were significantly higher in the Manual condition than in the Management by Exception and

A new intelligent approach for air traffic control using gravitational ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Therefore, poor management of this congestion may lead to a lot of flight delays, increase of operational errors by air traffic control personnel ... the PLT [8–11], and decreasing the duration of scheduling. [12, 13]. Hansen [3], Hu ...... [14] Hu X-B and Paolo E D 2009 An efficient genetic algorithm with uniform crossover for air ...

Automated Conflict Resolution, Arrival Management and Weather Avoidance for ATM

Science.gov (United States)

Erzberger, H.; Lauderdale, Todd A.; Chu, Yung-Cheng

2010-01-01

The paper describes a unified solution to three types of separation assurance problems that occur in en-route airspace: separation conflicts, arrival sequencing, and weather-cell avoidance. Algorithms for solving these problems play a key role in the design of future air traffic management systems such as NextGen. Because these problems can arise simultaneously in any combination, it is necessary to develop integrated algorithms for solving them. A unified and comprehensive solution to these problems provides the foundation for a future air traffic management system that requires a high level of automation in separation assurance. The paper describes the three algorithms developed for solving each problem and then shows how they are used sequentially to solve any combination of these problems. The first algorithm resolves loss-of-separation conflicts and is an evolution of an algorithm described in an earlier paper. The new version generates multiple resolutions for each conflict and then selects the one giving the least delay. Two new algorithms, one for sequencing and merging of arrival traffic, referred to as the Arrival Manager, and the other for weather-cell avoidance are the major focus of the paper. Because these three problems constitute a substantial fraction of the workload of en-route controllers, integrated algorithms to solve them is a basic requirement for automated separation assurance. The paper also reviews the Advanced Airspace Concept, a proposed design for a ground-based system that postulates redundant systems for separation assurance in order to achieve both high levels of safety and airspace capacity. It is proposed that automated separation assurance be introduced operationally in several steps, each step reducing controller workload further while increasing airspace capacity. A fast time simulation was used to determine performance statistics of the algorithm at up to 3 times current traffic levels.

Automated Deployment of Advanced Controls and Analytics in Buildings

Science.gov (United States)

Pritoni, Marco

Buildings use 40% of primary energy in the US. Recent studies show that developing energy analytics and enhancing control strategies can significantly improve their energy performance. However, the deployment of advanced control software applications has been mostly limited to academic studies. Larger-scale implementations are prevented by the significant engineering time and customization required, due to significant differences among buildings. This study demonstrates how physics-inspired data-driven models can be used to develop portable analytics and control applications for buildings. Specifically, I demonstrate application of these models in all phases of the deployment of advanced controls and analytics in buildings: in the first phase, "Site Preparation and Interface with Legacy Systems" I used models to discover or map relationships among building components, automatically gathering metadata (information about data points) necessary to run the applications. During the second phase: "Application Deployment and Commissioning", models automatically learn system parameters, used for advanced controls and analytics. In the third phase: "Continuous Monitoring and Verification" I utilized models to automatically measure the energy performance of a building that has implemented advanced control strategies. In the conclusions, I discuss future challenges and suggest potential strategies for these innovative control systems to be widely deployed in the market. This dissertation provides useful new tools in terms of procedures, algorithms, and models to facilitate the automation of deployment of advanced controls and analytics and accelerate their wide adoption in buildings.

Aviation Safety: Modeling and Analyzing Complex Interactions between Humans and Automated Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Rungta, Neha; Brat, Guillaume; Clancey, William J.; Linde, Charlotte; Raimondi, Franco; Seah, Chin; Shafto, Michael

2013-01-01

The on-going transformation from the current US Air Traffic System (ATS) to the Next Generation Air Traffic System (NextGen) will force the introduction of new automated systems and most likely will cause automation to migrate from ground to air. This will yield new function allocations between humans and automation and therefore change the roles and responsibilities in the ATS. Yet, safety in NextGen is required to be at least as good as in the current system. We therefore need techniques to evaluate the safety of the interactions between humans and automation. We think that current human factor studies and simulation-based techniques will fall short in front of the ATS complexity, and that we need to add more automated techniques to simulations, such as model checking, which offers exhaustive coverage of the non-deterministic behaviors in nominal and off-nominal scenarios. In this work, we present a verification approach based both on simulations and on model checking for evaluating the roles and responsibilities of humans and automation. Models are created using Brahms (a multi-agent framework) and we show that the traditional Brahms simulations can be integrated with automated exploration techniques based on model checking, thus offering a complete exploration of the behavioral space of the scenario. Our formal analysis supports the notion of beliefs and probabilities to reason about human behavior. We demonstrate the technique with the Ueberligen accident since it exemplifies authority problems when receiving conflicting advices from human and automated systems.

Human-Automation Cooperation for Separation Assurance in Future NextGen Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Mercer, Joey; Homola, Jeffrey; Cabrall, Christopher; Martin, Lynne; Morey, Susan; Gomez, Ashley; Prevot, Thomas

2014-01-01

A 2012 Human-In-The-Loop air traffic control simulation investigated a gradual paradigm-shift in the allocation of functions between operators and automation. Air traffic controllers staffed five adjacent high-altitude en route sectors, and during the course of a two-week experiment, worked traffic under different function-allocation approaches aligned with four increasingly mature NextGen operational environments. These NextGen time-frames ranged from near current-day operations to nearly fully-automated control, in which the ground systems automation was responsible for detecting conflicts, issuing strategic and tactical resolutions, and alerting the controller to exceptional circumstances. Results indicate that overall performance was best in the most automated NextGen environment. Safe operations were achieved in this environment for twice todays peak airspace capacity, while being rated by the controllers as highly acceptable. However, results show that sector operations were not always safe; separation violations did in fact occur. This paper will describe in detail the simulation conducted, as well discuss important results and their implications.

Air Traffic Management Research at NASA Ames

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Thomas J.

2012-01-01

The Aviation Systems Division at the NASA Ames Research Center conducts leading edge research in air traffic management concepts and technologies. This overview will present concepts and simulation results for research in traffic flow management, safe and efficient airport surface operations, super density terminal area operations, separation assurance and system wide modeling and simulation. A brief review of the ongoing air traffic management technology demonstration (ATD-1) will also be presented. A panel discussion, with Mr. Davis serving as a panelist, on air traffic research will follow the briefing.

Adaptive traffic control systems for urban networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Radivojević Danilo

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Adaptive traffic control systems represent complex, but powerful tool for improvement of traffic flow conditions in locations or zones where applied. Many traffic agencies, especially those that have a large number of signalized intersections with high variability of the traffic demand, choose to apply some of the adaptive traffic control systems. However, those systems are manufactured and offered by multiple vendors (companies that are competing for the market share. Due to that fact, besides the information available from the vendors themselves, or the information from different studies conducted on different continents, very limited amount of information is available about the details how those systems are operating. The reason for that is the protecting of the intellectual property from plagiarism. The primary goal of this paper is to make a brief analysis of the functionalities, characteristics, abilities and results of the most recognized, but also less known adaptive traffic control systems to the professional public and other persons with interest in this subject.

32 CFR 245.21 - ESCAT air traffic priority list.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 32 National Defense 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false ESCAT air traffic priority list. 245.21 Section 245.21 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE (CONTINUED) MISCELLANEOUS PLAN FOR THE EMERGENCY SECURITY CONTROL OF AIR TRAFFIC (ESCAT) ESCAT Air Traffic Priority List (EATPL) § 245.21 ESCAT air traffic...

Indicators for successful learning in air traffic control training

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van Meeuwen, Ludo; Brand-Gruwel, Saskia; Van Merriënboer, Jeroen; De Bock, Jeano; Kirschner, Paul A.

2011-01-01

Van Meeuwen, L. W., Brand-Gruwel, S., Van Merriënboer, J. J. G., De Bock, J. J. P. R., & Kirschner, P. A. (2010, August). Indicators for successful learning in air traffic control training. Paper presented at the 5th EARLI SIG 14 Learning and Professional Development Conference. Munich, Germany.

Application of the user-centred design process according ISO 9241-210 in air traffic control.

Science.gov (United States)

König, Christina; Hofmann, Thomas; Bruder, Ralph

2012-01-01

Designing a usable human machine interface for air traffic control is challenging and should follow approved methods. The ISO 9241-210 standard promises high usability of products by integrating future users and following an iterative process. This contribution describes the proceeding and first results of the analysis and application of ISO 9241-210 to develop a planning tool for air traffic controllers.

Modeling and Analyzing Transient Military Air Traffic Control

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-01

arrive and be serviced. In general, for n flights, the number of ways that flights can enter and leave the ATC is given by the nth Catalan number ...collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number . 1. REPORT DATE DEC 2010 2. REPORT TYPE 3. DATES COVERED 00-00...2010 to 00-00-2010 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Modeling and Analyzing Transient Military Air Traffic Control 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c

Visual problem solving and self-regulation in training air traffic control

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van Meeuwen, Ludo

2013-01-01

Van Meeuwen, L. W. (2013). Visual problem solving and self-regulation in training air traffic control (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies, Open Universiteit, Heerlen, The Netherlands.

Visual Problem Solving and Self‐regulation in Training Air Traffic Control

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Meeuwen van, Ludo

2015-01-01

Van Meeuwen, L. W. (2013). Visual problem solving and self-regulation in training air traffic control (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies, Open Universiteit, Heerlen, The Netherlands.

Automated control of a solar microgrid-powered air compressor for use in a small-scale compressed air energy storage system

OpenAIRE

Williams, Joshua N.

2017-01-01

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited As part of the Office of Naval Research's study of advanced energy technologies, this research examined the development and implementation of a control system for the compression phase of a small-scale compressed air energy storage system, using a solar-powered microgrid to store energy as compressed air for later use. The compression system is composed of numerous commercial-off-the-shelf components wherever possible. All electronic c...

FAA Alleged Waste and Mismanagement of Air Route Traffic Control Centers Critical and Essential Power Systems Project

Science.gov (United States)

1996-10-16

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) reviewed a complaint from Congressman Deal on behalf of a constituent. The constituent alleged waste and mismanagement occurred in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Air Route Traffic Control Centers Criti...

Consensus-Based Cooperative Control Based on Pollution Sensing and Traffic Information for Urban Traffic Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Artuñedo, Antonio; Del Toro, Raúl M; Haber, Rodolfo E

2017-04-26

Nowadays many studies are being conducted to develop solutions for improving the performance of urban traffic networks. One of the main challenges is the necessary cooperation among different entities such as vehicles or infrastructure systems and how to exploit the information available through networks of sensors deployed as infrastructures for smart cities. In this work an algorithm for cooperative control of urban subsystems is proposed to provide a solution for mobility problems in cities. The interconnected traffic lights controller ( TLC ) network adapts traffic lights cycles, based on traffic and air pollution sensory information, in order to improve the performance of urban traffic networks. The presence of air pollution in cities is not only caused by road traffic but there are other pollution sources that contribute to increase or decrease the pollution level. Due to the distributed and heterogeneous nature of the different components involved, a system of systems engineering approach is applied to design a consensus-based control algorithm. The designed control strategy contains a consensus-based component that uses the information shared in the network for reaching a consensus in the state of TLC network components. Discrete event systems specification is applied for modelling and simulation. The proposed solution is assessed by simulation studies with very promising results to deal with simultaneous responses to both pollution levels and traffic flows in urban traffic networks.

Consensus-Based Cooperative Control Based on Pollution Sensing and Traffic Information for Urban Traffic Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonio Artuñedo

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Nowadays many studies are being conducted to develop solutions for improving the performance of urban traffic networks. One of the main challenges is the necessary cooperation among different entities such as vehicles or infrastructure systems and how to exploit the information available through networks of sensors deployed as infrastructures for smart cities. In this work an algorithm for cooperative control of urban subsystems is proposed to provide a solution for mobility problems in cities. The interconnected traffic lights controller (TLC network adapts traffic lights cycles, based on traffic and air pollution sensory information, in order to improve the performance of urban traffic networks. The presence of air pollution in cities is not only caused by road traffic but there are other pollution sources that contribute to increase or decrease the pollution level. Due to the distributed and heterogeneous nature of the different components involved, a system of systems engineering approach is applied to design a consensus-based control algorithm. The designed control strategy contains a consensus-based component that uses the information shared in the network for reaching a consensus in the state of TLC network components. Discrete event systems specification is applied for modelling and simulation. The proposed solution is assessed by simulation studies with very promising results to deal with simultaneous responses to both pollution levels and traffic flows in urban traffic networks.

Trajectory Specification for Terminal Air Traffic: Pairwise Conflict Detection and Resolution

Science.gov (United States)

Paielli, Russ; Erzberger, Heinz

2017-01-01

Trajectory specification is the explicit bounding and control of aircraft trajectories such that the position at each point in time is constrained to a precisely defined volume of space. The bounding space is defined by cross-track, along-track, and vertical tolerances relative to a reference trajectory that specifies position as a function of time. The tolerances are dynamic and will be based on the aircraft navigation capabilities and the current traffic situation. A standard language will be developed to represent these specifications and to communicate them by datalink. Assuming conformance, trajectory specification can guarantee safe separation for an arbitrary period of time even in the event of an air traffic control (ATC) system or datalink failure, hence it can help to achieve the high level of safety and reliability needed for ATC automation. As a more proactive form of ATC, it can also maximize airspace capacity and reduce the reliance on tactical backup systems during normal operation. It applies to both enroute airspace and the terminal area around airports, but this paper focuses on the terminal area and presents algorithms and software for spacing arrivals and deconflicting both arrivals and departures.

MATSurv: multisensor air traffic surveillance system

Science.gov (United States)

Yeddanapudi, Murali; Bar-Shalom, Yaakov; Pattipati, Krishna R.; Gassner, Richard R.

1995-09-01

This paper deals with the design and implementation of MATSurv 1--an experimental Multisensor Air Traffic Surveillance system. The proposed system consists of a Kalman filter based state estimator used in conjunction with a 2D sliding window assignment algorithm. Real data from two FAA radars is used to evaluate the performance of this algorithm. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm provides a superior classification of the measurements into tracks (i.e., the most likely aircraft trajectories) when compared to the aircraft trajectories obtained using the measurement IDs (squawk or IFF code).

Application of air traffic control competence reference models as a mean of air navigation services provider’s charge optimization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

В.П. Харченко

2010-01-01

Full Text Available  The issue of application of Air Traffic Control (ATC competence reference models as a mean of air navigation services provider’s charge optimization is described in the article, and this issue is interpretated as an optimization task. The data relating to the significant growth of aviation traffic, especially using the airspace of Ukraine, given by authors, and the statement of fact that Air Traffic Management (ATM system’s technical component reliability increasement takes place on the basis of practically invariable psychophysiological abilities of aviation controller, make the substantiation of ANSP provision with the most trained ATC controllers for the work on the working places of ATC Unit actual. The ‘mechanism’ of ATC controllers competence reference model creation is defined step-by step. There is an example of candidate’s for the working place competence quantitative individual model forming as a common criteria of competence, which, in its turn, is the compressed format of all parameters of its working activity, received at the stage of control. The approach, according to which the individual parameters of graduating student’s output model’s professional characteristics, which he received after the examination of his work as Tower controller (ATM Unit of aerodrome control service, approach controller or area control service controller, are compared with the predetermined specialist’s competence reference model, relating to the special working place in ATM system, is supposed here. Notably, the conception, relating to the correspondence of the graduating student’s competence output level to the defined reference model of ATC controller, relating to the special working place of ATM Unit, is realised.

Allocation of Functions in a Far-Term Air Traffic Control Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Homola, Jeffrey; Martin, Lynne; Mercer, Joey; Cabrall, Christopher; Prevot, Thomas

2011-01-01

A human-in-the-loop exploration of a ground-based automated separation assurance concept was conducted that involved the allocation of certain functions between humans and automation. This exploration included operations that were sustained for prolonged periods of time with high levels of traffic in the presence of convective weather and scheduling constraints. An investigation into the acceptability of the defined roles and performance of tasks was conducted where it was found that the participants rated the concept and allocation of functions with a high level of acceptability. However, issues were encountered with the automation related to the detection of and response to tactical conflicts. Lower ratings were given on account of these concerns, and it was found that a key contributor to the underlying problems was transitioning aircraft and the uncertainty of their trajectories. Stemming from those results, participants responded that they would rather have direct control over aircraft transitions as well as more control over the tactical conflict resolution automation. In contrast, participants responded that they would rather have the automation place aircraft back on trajectory, and perform weather avoidance and scheduling tasks.

5 CFR 842.405 - Air traffic controllers, firefighters, law enforcement officers, and nuclear materials couriers.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Air traffic controllers, firefighters, law enforcement officers, and nuclear materials couriers. 842.405 Section 842.405 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT (CONTINUED) CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) FEDERAL EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT SYSTEM-BASIC ANNUITY Computations ...

Time-based air traffic management using expert systems

Science.gov (United States)

Tobias, L.; Scoggins, J. L.

1986-01-01

A prototype expert system was developed for the time scheduling of aircraft into the terminal area. The three functions of the air traffic control schedule advisor are as follows: first, for each new arrival, it develops an admissible flight plan for that aircraft. Second, as the aircraft progresses through the terminal area, it monitors deviations from the flight plan and provides advisories to return the aircraft to its assigned schedule. Third, if major disruptions such as missed approaches occur, it develops a revised plan. The advisor is operational on a Symbolics 3600, and is programed in MRS (a logic programming language), Lisp, and FORTRAN.

The ECLSS Advanced Automation Project Evolution and Technology Assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Dewberry, Brandon S.; Carnes, James R.; Lukefahr, Brenda D.; Rogers, John S.; Rochowiak, Daniel M.; Mckee, James W.; Benson, Brian L.

1990-01-01

Viewgraphs on Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) advanced automation project evolution and technology assessment are presented. Topics covered include: the ECLSS advanced automation project; automatic fault diagnosis of ECLSS subsystems descriptions; in-line, real-time chemical and microbial fluid analysis; and object-oriented, distributed chemical and microbial modeling of regenerative environmental control systems description.

Training of U.S. Air Traffic Controllers. (IDA Report No. R-206).

Science.gov (United States)

Henry, James H.; And Others

The report reviews the evolution of existing national programs for air traffic controller training, estimates the number of persons requiring developmental and supplementary training, examines present controller selection and training programs, investigates performance measurement methods, considers standardization and quality control, discusses…

Model of large scale man-machine systems with an application to vessel traffic control

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wewerinke, P.H.; van der Ent, W.I.; ten Hove, D.

1989-01-01

Mathematical models are discussed to deal with complex large-scale man-machine systems such as vessel (air, road) traffic and process control systems. Only interrelationships between subsystems are assumed. Each subsystem is controlled by a corresponding human operator (HO). Because of the

Design of Air Traffic Control Operation System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriela STROE

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a numerical simulation for a different aircraft, based on the specific aircraft data that can be incorporated in the model and the equations of motions which can be consequently solved. The aircraft flight design involves various technical steps and requires the use of sophisticated software having modeling and simulation capabilities. Within the flight simulation model, the aerodynamic model can be regarded as the most complex and most important. With appropriate aerodynamic modeling the aerodynamic forces and moments acting on the aircraft's center of gravity can be numerically solved with accuracy. These forces and moments are further used to solve the equations of motion. The development of control and computing technology makes it possible for advanced flight control strategy. The advanced control techniques tend to make the control design and their implementation much more complicated with more control loops or channels; in this line, the autopilot of modern aircrafts includes a variety of automatic control systems that aid and support the flight navigation, flight management, and perform the enhancing and/or augmenting of the stability characteristics of the airplane. Therefore in this context it is very important to choose the dynamic that will satisfy the performance and robustness specifications.

Control and automation systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schmidt, R.; Zillich, H.

1986-01-01

A survey is given of the development of control and automation systems for energy uses. General remarks about control and automation schemes are followed by a description of modern process control systems along with process control processes as such. After discussing the particular process control requirements of nuclear power plants the paper deals with the reliability and availability of process control systems and refers to computerized simulation processes. The subsequent paragraphs are dedicated to descriptions of the operating floor, ergonomic conditions, existing systems, flue gas desulfurization systems, the electromagnetic influences on digital circuits as well as of light wave uses. (HAG) [de

Dimensions of Air Traffic Control Tower Information Needs: From Information Requests to Display Design

Science.gov (United States)

Durso, Francis T.; Johnson, Brian R.; Crutchfield, Jerry M.

2010-01-01

In an effort to determine the information needs of tower air traffic controllers, instructors from the Federal Aviation Administration's Academy in Oklahoma City were asked to control traffic in a high-fidelity tower cab simulator. Information requests were made apparent by eliminating access to standard tower information sources. Instead,…

Speed and path control for conflict-free flight in high air traffic demand in terminal airspace

Science.gov (United States)

Rezaei, Ali

To accommodate the growing air traffic demand, flights will need to be planned and navigated with a much higher level of precision than today's aircraft flight path. The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) stands to benefit significantly in safety and efficiency from such movement of aircraft along precisely defined paths. Air Traffic Operations (ATO) relying on such precision--the Precision Air Traffic Operations or PATO--are the foundation of high throughput capacity envisioned for the future airports. In PATO, the preferred method is to manage the air traffic by assigning a speed profile to each aircraft in a given fleet in a given airspace (in practice known as (speed control). In this research, an algorithm has been developed, set in the context of a Hybrid Control System (HCS) model, that determines whether a speed control solution exists for a given fleet of aircraft in a given airspace and if so, computes this solution as a collective speed profile that assures separation if executed without deviation. Uncertainties such as weather are not considered but the algorithm can be modified to include uncertainties. The algorithm first computes all feasible sequences (i.e., all sequences that allow the given fleet of aircraft to reach destinations without violating the FAA's separation requirement) by looking at all pairs of aircraft. Then, the most likely sequence is determined and the speed control solution is constructed by a backward trajectory generation, starting with the aircraft last out and proceeds to the first out. This computation can be done for different sequences in parallel which helps to reduce the computation time. If such a solution does not exist, then the algorithm calculates a minimal path modification (known as path control) that will allow separation-compliance speed control. We will also prove that the algorithm will modify the path without creating a new separation violation. The new path will be generated by adding new

Strategic Framework of Air Traffic Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sanja Steiner

2008-05-01

Full Text Available The paper elaborates the past development of air traffic inEurope from the aspect of its economic benefits and ecologicallack of sustainability of conventional technology. The mainguidelines of the strategic development are related to the implementationof the global ecological standard and actual reformationprocesses of the air traffic management system postulatedby A TM 2000+ Strategy and the "Single European Sky"standard. The paper studies the wider aspects of integrated trafficdevelopment at the regional level and the factors influencingfurther development of the European air traffic.

Towards an agent based traffic regulation and recommendation system for the on-road air quality control

OpenAIRE

Sadiq, Abderrahmane; El Fazziki, Abdelaziz; Ouarzazi, Jamal; Sadgal, Mohamed

2016-01-01

This paper presents an integrated and adaptive problem-solving approach to control the on-road air quality by modeling the road infrastructure, managing traffic based on pollution level and generating recommendations for road users. The aim is to reduce vehicle emissions in the most polluted road segments and optimizing the pollution levels. For this we propose the use of historical and real time pollution records and contextual data to calculate the air quality index on road networks and gen...

A Longitudinal Study of Myers-Briggs Personality Types in Air Traffic Controllers

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Dollar, Carolyn S; Schroeder, David J

2004-01-01

.... The study investigated the relationship between MBTI types and initial success in the Air Traffic Control Academy Screen Program, subsequent field training outcomes, and transition to a supervisory...

Development and Design of a User Interface for a Computer Automated Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anderson, B.

1999-01-01

A user interface is created to monitor and operate the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system. The interface is networked to the system's programmable logic controller. The controller maintains automated control of the system. The user through the interface is able to see the status of the system and override or adjust the automatic control features. The interface is programmed to show digital readouts of system equipment as well as visual queues of system operational statuses. It also provides information for system design and component interaction. The interface is made easier to read by simple designs, color coordination, and graphics. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermi lab) conducts high energy particle physics research. Part of this research involves collision experiments with protons, and anti-protons. These interactions are contained within one of two massive detectors along Fermilab's largest particle accelerator the Tevatron. The D-Zero Assembly Building houses one of these detectors. At this time detector systems are being upgraded for a second experiment run, titled Run II. Unlike the previous run, systems at D-Zero must be computer automated so operators do not have to continually monitor and adjust these systems during the run. Human intervention should only be necessary for system start up and shut down, and equipment failure. Part of this upgrade includes the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system (HVAC system). The HVAC system is responsible for controlling two subsystems, the air temperatures of the D-Zero Assembly Building and associated collision hall, as well as six separate water systems used in the heating and cooling of the air and detector components. The BYAC system is automated by a programmable logic controller. In order to provide system monitoring and operator control a user interface is required. This paper will address methods and strategies used to design and implement an effective user interface

Physics of automated driving in framework of three-phase traffic theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Kerner, Boris S

2018-04-01

We have revealed physical features of automated driving in the framework of the three-phase traffic theory for which there is no fixed time headway to the preceding vehicle. A comparison with the classical model approach to automated driving for which an automated driving vehicle tries to reach a fixed (desired or "optimal") time headway to the preceding vehicle has been made. It turns out that automated driving in the framework of the three-phase traffic theory can exhibit the following advantages in comparison with the classical model of automated driving: (i) The absence of string instability. (ii) Considerably smaller speed disturbances at road bottlenecks. (iii) Automated driving vehicles based on the three-phase theory can decrease the probability of traffic breakdown at the bottleneck in mixed traffic flow consisting of human driving and automated driving vehicles; on the contrary, even a single automated driving vehicle based on the classical approach can provoke traffic breakdown at the bottleneck in mixed traffic flow.

Physics of automated driving in framework of three-phase traffic theory

Science.gov (United States)

Kerner, Boris S.

2018-04-01

We have revealed physical features of automated driving in the framework of the three-phase traffic theory for which there is no fixed time headway to the preceding vehicle. A comparison with the classical model approach to automated driving for which an automated driving vehicle tries to reach a fixed (desired or "optimal") time headway to the preceding vehicle has been made. It turns out that automated driving in the framework of the three-phase traffic theory can exhibit the following advantages in comparison with the classical model of automated driving: (i) The absence of string instability. (ii) Considerably smaller speed disturbances at road bottlenecks. (iii) Automated driving vehicles based on the three-phase theory can decrease the probability of traffic breakdown at the bottleneck in mixed traffic flow consisting of human driving and automated driving vehicles; on the contrary, even a single automated driving vehicle based on the classical approach can provoke traffic breakdown at the bottleneck in mixed traffic flow.

IMPACT OF POLY-LINGUISTIC LOAD ON AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL AND MONITORING QUALITY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Volodymyr Kharchenko

2012-09-01

Full Text Available  We have defined the structure and basic characteristics of the poly-linguistic audio-acoustic channel within the framework of controller – pilot communication, and set limits of poly-linguistic load impact on air traffic control.

Expertise differences in air traffic control: An eye-tracking study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van Meeuwen, Ludo; Jarodzka, Halszka; Brand-Gruwel, Saskia; Kirschner, Paul A.; De Bock, Jeano; Van Merriënboer, Jeroen

2012-01-01

Van Meeuwen, L. W., Jarodzka, H., Brand-Gruwel, S., Kirschner, P. A., De Bock, J. J. P. R., & Van Merriënboer, J. J. G. (2012, April). Expertise differences in air traffic control: An eye-tracking study. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting 2012, Vancouver,

Ultrasonic sensors in urban traffic driving-aid systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Alonso, Luciano; Milanés, Vicente; Torre-Ferrero, Carlos; Godoy, Jorge; Oria, Juan P; de Pedro, Teresa

2011-01-01

Currently, vehicles are often equipped with active safety systems to reduce the risk of accidents, most of which occur in urban environments. The most prominent include Antilock Braking Systems (ABS), Traction Control and Stability Control. All these systems use different kinds of sensors to constantly monitor the conditions of the vehicle, and act in an emergency. In this paper the use of ultrasonic sensors in active safety systems for urban traffic is proposed, and the advantages and disadvantages when compared to other sensors are discussed. Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) for urban traffic based on ultrasounds is presented as an application example. The proposed system has been implemented in a fully-automated prototype vehicle and has been tested under real traffic conditions. The results confirm the good performance of ultrasonic sensors in these systems.

Hematological and immunological effects of stress of air traffic controllers in northeastern Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Valdenilson Ribeiro Ribas

2011-06-01

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Several studies have shown that stress and emotional reactions can affect immune responses in animals and humans. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate hematological and immunological effects of stress on air traffic controllers. METHODS: Thirty air traffic controllers and 15 aeronautical information service operators were evaluated. The groups were divided as information service operators with 10 years or more of experience (AIS>10 and with less than 10 years in the profession (AIS10 and with less than 10 years in the profession (ATCo10 group presented a significantly lower phagocytosis rate of monocytes at 2:00 p.m. compared to 8:00 a.m. Moreover, the ATCo>10 group presented lower hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, platelet and leukocyte levels, and increased cortisol concentrations at 8:00 a.m. compared to the other groups. Additionally, this group had lower phagocytosis rate of monocytes, and hemoglobin, platelet, leukocyte, basophils and nitric oxide levels at 2:00 p.m. compared to the other groups. CONCLUSION: Stress seems to greatly affect immune responses of air traffic controllers with more than ten years of experience.

Planes, Politics and Oral Proficiency: Testing International Air Traffic Controllers

Science.gov (United States)

Moder, Carol Lynn; Halleck, Gene B.

2009-01-01

This study investigates the variation in oral proficiency demonstrated by 14 Air Traffic Controllers across two types of testing tasks: work-related radio telephony-based tasks and non-specific English tasks on aviation topics. Their performance was compared statistically in terms of level ratings on the International Civil Aviation Organization…

Automated subsystems control development. [for life support systems of space station

Science.gov (United States)

Block, R. F.; Heppner, D. B.; Samonski, F. H., Jr.; Lance, N., Jr.

1985-01-01

NASA has the objective to launch a Space Station in the 1990s. It has been found that the success of the Space Station engineering development, the achievement of initial operational capability (IOC), and the operation of a productive Space Station will depend heavily on the implementation of an effective automation and control approach. For the development of technology needed to implement the required automation and control function, a contract entitled 'Automated Subsystems Control for Life Support Systems' (ASCLSS) was awarded to two American companies. The present paper provides a description of the ASCLSS program. Attention is given to an automation and control architecture study, a generic automation and control approach for hardware demonstration, a standard software approach, application of Air Revitalization Group (ARG) process simulators, and a generic man-machine interface.

NEW POSSIBILITIES OF RAILWAY TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lionginas LIUDVINAVIČIUS

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This article analyses the train traffic control systems in 1435 mm and 1520 mm gauge railways. The article analyses the aspects of train traffic control and locomotive energy saving by using the coordinates of track profile change that have been received from GPS. In the article, achievements of Lithuanian railways (LG in the area of train traffic control optimisation are presented.

Automated roof window control system to address overheating on renovated houses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Psomas, Theofanis Ch.; Heiselberg, Per Kvols; Lyme, Thøger

2017-01-01

Highlights •Manually controlled passive cooling system do not assure high quality environment. •Automated window system reduces overheating risk in houses of temperate climates. •Window system offers similar indoor air quality with mechanical ventilation system. •User behavior on window system...

Trainer Interventions as Instructional Strategies in Air Traffic Control Training

Science.gov (United States)

Koskela, Inka; Palukka, Hannele

2011-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to identify methods of guidance and supervision used in air traffic control training. It also aims to show how these methods facilitate trainee participation in core work activities. Design/methodology/approach: The paper applies the tools of conversation analysis and ethnomethodology to explore the ways in which trainers…

Manpower Requirements for Air Traffic Control and Flight Service Specialists in Indiana.

Science.gov (United States)

Purdue Univ., Lafayette, IN. Office of Manpower Studies.

As of January 1, 1968 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States Department of Transportation employed 6,963 controllers in airport towers, 7,617 controllers in Air Route Traffic Control Centers, and 4,459 flight service specialists at airport locations. Projected needs are as follows: (1) Controllers in airport towers:…

Air traffic control : FAA enhanced the controller-in-charge program, but more comprehensive evaluation is needed

Science.gov (United States)

2001-10-01

In negotiating its 1998 collective bargaining agreement with its controllers' union (the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, or NATCA), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) agreed to a national plan that would reduce by attrition the n...

Complexity analysis of the Next Gen Air Traffic Management System: trajectory based operations.

Science.gov (United States)

Lyons, Rhonda

2012-01-01

According to Federal Aviation Administration traffic predictions currently our Air Traffic Management (ATM) system is operating at 150 percent capacity; forecasting that within the next two decades, the traffic with increase to a staggering 250 percent [17]. This will require a major redesign of our system. Today's ATM system is complex. It is designed to safely, economically, and efficiently provide air traffic services through the cost-effective provision of facilities and seamless services in collaboration with multiple agents however, contrary the vision, the system is loosely integrated and is suffering tremendously from antiquated equipment and saturated airways. The new Next Generation (Next Gen) ATM system is designed to transform the current system into an agile, robust and responsive set of operations that are designed to safely manage the growing needs of the projected increasingly complex, diverse set of air transportation system users and massive projected worldwide traffic rates. This new revolutionary technology-centric system is dynamically complex and is much more sophisticated than it's soon to be predecessor. ATM system failures could yield large scale catastrophic consequences as it is a safety critical system. This work will attempt to describe complexity and the complex nature of the NextGen ATM system and Trajectory Based Operational. Complex human factors interactions within Next Gen will be analyzed using a proposed dual experimental approach designed to identify hazards, gaps and elicit emergent hazards that would not be visible if conducted in isolation. Suggestions will be made along with a proposal for future human factors research in the TBO safety critical Next Gen environment.

Learning to Control Advanced Life Support Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Subramanian, Devika

2004-01-01

Advanced life support systems have many interacting processes and limited resources. Controlling and optimizing advanced life support systems presents unique challenges. In particular, advanced life support systems are nonlinear coupled dynamical systems and it is difficult for humans to take all interactions into account to design an effective control strategy. In this project. we developed several reinforcement learning controllers that actively explore the space of possible control strategies, guided by rewards from a user specified long term objective function. We evaluated these controllers using a discrete event simulation of an advanced life support system. This simulation, called BioSim, designed by Nasa scientists David Kortenkamp and Scott Bell has multiple, interacting life support modules including crew, food production, air revitalization, water recovery, solid waste incineration and power. They are implemented in a consumer/producer relationship in which certain modules produce resources that are consumed by other modules. Stores hold resources between modules. Control of this simulation is via adjusting flows of resources between modules and into/out of stores. We developed adaptive algorithms that control the flow of resources in BioSim. Our learning algorithms discovered several ingenious strategies for maximizing mission length by controlling the air and water recycling systems as well as crop planting schedules. By exploiting non-linearities in the overall system dynamics, the learned controllers easily out- performed controllers written by human experts. In sum, we accomplished three goals. We (1) developed foundations for learning models of coupled dynamical systems by active exploration of the state space, (2) developed and tested algorithms that learn to efficiently control air and water recycling processes as well as crop scheduling in Biosim, and (3) developed an understanding of the role machine learning in designing control systems for

Measurement of electromagnetic fields generated by air traffic control radar systems with spectrum analysers.

Science.gov (United States)

Barellini, A; Bogi, L; Licitra, G; Silvi, A M; Zari, A

2009-12-01

Air traffic control (ATC) primary radars are 'classical' radars that use echoes of radiofrequency (RF) pulses from aircraft to determine their position. High-power RF pulses radiated from radar antennas may produce high electromagnetic field levels in the surrounding area. Measurement of electromagnetic fields produced by RF-pulsed radar by means of a swept-tuned spectrum analyser are investigated here. Measurements have been carried out both in the laboratory and in situ on signals generated by an ATC primary radar.

Measurement of electromagnetic fields generated by air traffic control radar systems with spectrum analysers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barellini, A.; Bogi, L.; Licitra, G.; Silvi, A. M.; Zari, A.

2009-01-01

Air traffic control (ATC) primary radars are 'classical' radars that use echoes of radiofrequency (RF) pulses from aircraft to determine their position. High-power RF pulses radiated from radar antennas may produce high electromagnetic field levels in the surrounding area. Measurement of electromagnetic fields produced by RF-pulsed radar by means of a swept-tuned spectrum analyser are investigated here. Measurements have been carried out both in the laboratory and in situ on signals generated by an ATC primary radar. (authors)

The environmental control and life support system advanced automation project

Science.gov (United States)

Dewberry, Brandon S.

1991-01-01

The objective of the ECLSS Advanced Automation project includes reduction of the risk associated with the integration of new, beneficial software techniques. Demonstrations of this software to baseline engineering and test personnel will show the benefits of these techniques. The advanced software will be integrated into ground testing and ground support facilities, familiarizing its usage by key personnel.

Measures related to traffic planning for air pollution control

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baumueller, J.; Reuter, U. [Office of Environmental Protection, Stuttgart (Germany). Dept. for Climatology

1995-12-31

The immense increase of motor traffic, in the future reinforced by the European market and the opening of boarders to the east countries, requires new efforts in traffic policy. In the city agglomerations the motor traffic is nearly collapsing. The increase of motor traffic is the reason for a considerable degradation of environment, especially by noise and air pollution. For the region of Stuttgart the problems and possibilities of counter-measures are discussed. (author)

Measures related to traffic planning for air pollution control

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baumueller, J; Reuter, U [Office of Environmental Protection, Stuttgart (Germany). Dept. for Climatology

1996-12-31

The immense increase of motor traffic, in the future reinforced by the European market and the opening of boarders to the east countries, requires new efforts in traffic policy. In the city agglomerations the motor traffic is nearly collapsing. The increase of motor traffic is the reason for a considerable degradation of environment, especially by noise and air pollution. For the region of Stuttgart the problems and possibilities of counter-measures are discussed. (author)

Design and Operational Evaluation of the Traffic Management Advisor at the Fort Worth Air Route Traffic Control Center

Science.gov (United States)

1997-06-19

NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have designed and developed an automation tool known as the Traffic Management Advisor (TMA). The TMA is a time-based strategic planning tool that provides Traffic Management Coordinators (TMCs) and ...

Ultrasonic Sensors in Urban Traffic Driving-Aid Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Teresa de Pedro

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Currently, vehicles are often equipped with active safety systems to reduce the risk of accidents, most of which occur in urban environments. The most prominent include Antilock Braking Systems (ABS, Traction Control and Stability Control. All these systems use different kinds of sensors to constantly monitor the conditions of the vehicle, and act in an emergency. In this paper the use of ultrasonic sensors in active safety systems for urban traffic is proposed, and the advantages and disadvantages when compared to other sensors are discussed. Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC for urban traffic based on ultrasounds is presented as an application example. The proposed system has been implemented in a fully-automated prototype vehicle and has been tested under real traffic conditions. The results confirm the good performance of ultrasonic sensors in these systems.

An advanced automation system for operation of Sao Paulo pumping stations from TRANSPETRO Master Control Center - CNCO

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Corcioli, Mario Sergio; Barreto, Camila Maria Benevenuto [TRANSPETRO, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

2009-07-01

Since 2000 the operations of the TRANSPETRO pumping stations in the state of Sao Paulo region began to be transferred from local control centers located at the transfer and storage terminals to the National Operational Control Center (CNCO) of TRANSPETRO, located at the headquarters of the company, in Rio de Janeiro. The proposed paper aims to presenting an overview of the automation system that was developed to enable such pumping stations to be operated from CNCO in a reliable and secure manner, focusing on tools that offer an embedded system alarms completely free of false alarms with automatic determining of the root cause, and also automatic and advanced diagnoses of problems caused by failures of hardware, human error and abnormal conditions of the process, providing the CNCO SCADA system of accurate and quality information that help operators to make decisions. The referred automation system was integrated for the first time to CNCO SCADA system in 2000, for pipeline pumps of Osvat (Sao Sebastiao - Vale do Paraiba pipeline) station at the Sao Sebastiao Terminal - northern coast of Sao Paulo region. (author)

Emotional and cognitive influences in air traffic controller tasks: An investigation using a virtual environment?

Science.gov (United States)

Truschzinski, Martina; Betella, Alberto; Brunnett, Guido; Verschure, Paul F M J

2018-05-01

Air traffic controllers are required to perform complex tasks which require attention and high precision. This study investigates how the difficulty of such tasks influences emotional states, cognitive workload and task performance. We use quantitative and qualitative measurements, including the recording of pupil dilation and changes in affect using questionnaires. Participants were required to perform a number of air traffic control tasks using the immersive human accessible Virtual Reality space in the "eXperience Induction Machine". Based on the data collected, we developed and validated a model which integrates personality, workload and affective theories. Our results indicate that the difficulty of an air traffic control task has a direct influence on cognitive workload as well as on the self-reported mood; whereas both mood and workload seem to change independently. In addition, we show that personality, in particular neuroticism, affects both mood and performance of the participants. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Distributed Simulation Facility to Support Human Factors Research in Advanced Air Transportation Technology

Science.gov (United States)

Amonlirdviman, Keith; Farley, Todd C.; Hansman, R. John, Jr.; Ladik, John F.; Sherer, Dana Z.

1998-01-01

A distributed real-time simulation of the civil air traffic environment developed to support human factors research in advanced air transportation technology is presented. The distributed environment is based on a custom simulation architecture designed for simplicity and flexibility in human experiments. Standard Internet protocols are used to create the distributed environment, linking all advanced cockpit simulator, all Air Traffic Control simulator, and a pseudo-aircraft control and simulation management station. The pseudo-aircraft control station also functions as a scenario design tool for coordinating human factors experiments. This station incorporates a pseudo-pilot interface designed to reduce workload for human operators piloting multiple aircraft simultaneously in real time. The application of this distributed simulation facility to support a study of the effect of shared information (via air-ground datalink) on pilot/controller shared situation awareness and re-route negotiation is also presented.

Computational control of networks of dynamical systems: Application to the National Airspace System

Science.gov (United States)

Bayen, Alexandre M.

The research presented in this thesis is motivated by the need for efficient analysis, automation, and optimization tools for the National Airspace System (NAS). A modeling framework based on hybrid system theory is developed, which captures congestion propagation into the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. This model is validated against Enhanced Traffic Management System (ETMS) data and used for analyzing low level actuation of the human Air Traffic Controller. This model enables us to quantify the capacity limit of the airspace in terms of geometry and traffic patterns, as well as the speed of propagation of congestion in the system. Once this setting is in place, maneuver assignment problems are posed as Mixed Integer Linear Programs (MILPs). Problem specific algorithms are designed to show that certain MILPs can be solved exactly in polynomial time. These algorithms are shown to run faster than CPLEX (the leading commercial software to solve MILPs). For other problems, approximation algorithms are designed, with guaranteed bounds on running time and performance. Flow control problems in the NAS are modeled using an Eulerian framework. A partial differential equation (PDE) model of high altitude traffic is derived, using a modified Lighthill-Whitham-Richards (LWR) PDE. High altitude traffic is modeled as a network of LWR PDEs linked through their boundary conditions. An adjoint-based method is developed for controlling network flow problems and applied to scenarios for the airspace between Chicago and the east coast. Accurate numerical analysis schemes are used and run very fast on this set of coupled one dimensional problems. The resulting simulations provide NAS-wide ATC control strategies in the form of flow patterns to apply to streams of aircraft. Finally, tactical control problems at the level of the dynamics of individual aircraft are studied. The problem of proving safety of conflict avoidance protocols is posed in the Hamilton-Jacobi framework. A proof

Task-Oriented and Relationship-Building Communications between Air Traffic Controllers and Pilots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Inwon Kang

2017-09-01

Full Text Available By questioning the lopsided attention on task-oriented factors in air traffic controller-pilot communication, the current study places an equal weighting on both task-oriented and relationship-building communications, and investigates how each type of communication influences sustainable performance in airline operation team. Results show that both task-oriented and relationship-building communications in terms of sustainability of team process predicted greater communication satisfaction at work. Also, both task interdependence and shared leadership influenced both types of air traffic controller-pilot communication. However, only relationship-building communication had a direct influence on perceived work performance whereas task-oriented communication had not. Along with task-oriented factors, this study raises the relationship-oriented factors as important resources for the sustainable team performance in airline industry.

Development of design principles for automated systems in transport control.

Science.gov (United States)

Balfe, Nora; Wilson, John R; Sharples, Sarah; Clarke, Theresa

2012-01-01

This article reports the results of a qualitative study investigating attitudes towards and opinions of an advanced automation system currently used in UK rail signalling. In-depth interviews were held with 10 users, key issues associated with automation were identified and the automation's impact on the signalling task investigated. The interview data highlighted the importance of the signallers' understanding of the automation and their (in)ability to predict its outputs. The interviews also covered the methods used by signallers to interact with and control the automation, and the perceived effects on their workload. The results indicate that despite a generally low level of understanding and ability to predict the actions of the automation system, signallers have developed largely successful coping mechanisms that enable them to use the technology effectively. These findings, along with parallel work identifying desirable attributes of automation from the literature in the area, were used to develop 12 principles of automation which can be used to help design new systems which better facilitate cooperative working. The work reported in this article was completed with the active involvement of operational rail staff who regularly use automated systems in rail signalling. The outcomes are currently being used to inform decisions on the extent and type of automation and user interfaces in future generations of rail control systems.

Occupational and public field exposure from communication, navigation, and radar systems used for air traffic control.

Science.gov (United States)

Joseph, Wout; Goeminne, Francis; Vermeeren, Günter; Verloock, Leen; Martens, Luc

2012-12-01

Electromagnetic exposure (occupational and general public) to 14 types of air traffic control (ATC) systems is assessed. Measurement methods are proposed for in situ exposure assessment of these ATC systems. In total, 50 sites are investigated at 1,073 locations in the frequency range of 255 kHz to 24 GHz. For all installations, typical and maximal exposure values for workers and the general public are provided. Two of the 14 types of systems, Non-Directional Beacons (NDB) (up to 881.6 V m) and Doppler Very High Frequency (VHF) Omni-directional Range (DVOR) (up to 92.3 V m), exhibited levels requiring recommended minimum distances such that the ICNIRP reference levels are not exceeded. Cumulative exposure of all present radiofrequency (RF) sources is investigated, and it is concluded that the ATC source dominates the total exposure in its neighborhood.

The employment of a spoken language computer applied to an air traffic control task.

Science.gov (United States)

Laveson, J. I.; Silver, C. A.

1972-01-01

Assessment of the merits of a limited spoken language (56 words) computer in a simulated air traffic control (ATC) task. An airport zone approximately 60 miles in diameter with a traffic flow simulation ranging from single-engine to commercial jet aircraft provided the workload for the controllers. This research determined that, under the circumstances of the experiments carried out, the use of a spoken-language computer would not improve the controller performance.

The predictive validity of personality tests in air traffic controller selection

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roe, R.A.; Oprins, E.A.P.B.; Geven, E.

2012-01-01

A brief historical review of test methods used for selecting air traffic controllers (ATCOs) shows that in contrast to e.g. ability tests and job samples, personality tests have been used rather infrequently. The lesser popularity of personality tests may be explained from the belief that

Attentional costs and failures in air traffic control notifications.

Science.gov (United States)

Imbert, Jean-Paul; Hodgetts, Helen M; Parise, Robert; Vachon, François; Dehais, Frédéric; Tremblay, Sébastien

2014-01-01

Large display screens are common in supervisory tasks, meaning that alerts are often perceived in peripheral vision. Five air traffic control notification designs were evaluated in their ability to capture attention during an ongoing supervisory task, as well as their impact on the primary task. A range of performance measures, eye-tracking and subjective reports showed that colour, even animated, was less effective than movement, and notifications sometimes went unnoticed. Designs that drew attention to the notified aircraft by a pulsating box, concentric circles or the opacity of the background resulted in faster perception and no missed notifications. However, the latter two designs were intrusive and impaired primary task performance, while the simpler animated box captured attention without an overhead cognitive cost. These results highlight the need for a holistic approach to evaluation, achieving a balance between the benefits for one aspect of performance against the potential costs for another. Practitioner summary: We performed a holistic examination of air traffic control notification designs regarding their ability to capture attention during an ongoing supervisory task. The combination of performance, eye-tracking and subjective measurements demonstrated that the best design achieved a balance between attentional power and the overhead cognitive cost to primary task performance.

Air Traffic Controllers' Control Strategies in the Terminal Area Under Off-Nominal Conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Lynne; Mercer, Joey; Callantine, Todd; Kupfer, Michael; Cabrall, Christopher

2012-01-01

A human-in-the-loop simulation investigated the robustness of a schedule-based terminal-area air traffic management concept, and its supporting controller tools, to off-nominal events - events that led to situations in which runway arrival schedules required adjustments and controllers could no longer use speed control alone to impose the necessary delays. The main research question was exploratory: to assess whether controllers could safely resolve and control the traffic during off-nominal events. A focus was the role of the supervisor - how he managed the schedules, how he assisted the controllers, what strategies he used, and which combinations of tools he used. Observations and questionnaire responses revealed supervisor strategies for resolving events followed a similar pattern: a standard approach specific to each type of event often resolved to a smooth conclusion. However, due to the range of factors influencing the event (e.g., environmental conditions, aircraft density on the schedule, etc.), sometimes the plan required revision and actions had a wide-ranging effect.

77 FR 56698 - Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee

Science.gov (United States)

2012-09-13

...The FAA is issuing this notice to advise the public that a meeting of the Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee (ATPAC) will be held to review present air traffic control procedures and practices for standardization, revision, clarification, and upgrading of terminology and procedures.

78 FR 66098 - Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee

Science.gov (United States)

2013-11-04

...The FAA is issuing this notice to advise the public that a meeting of the Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee (ATPAC) will be held to review present air traffic control procedures and practices for standardization, revision, clarification, and upgrading of terminology and procedures.

75 FR 22892 - Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-30

...The FAA is issuing this notice to advise the public that a meeting of the Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee (ATPAC) will be held to review present air traffic control procedures and practices for standardization, revision, clarification, and upgrading of terminology and procedures.

76 FR 59481 - Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee

Science.gov (United States)

2011-09-26

...The FAA is issuing this notice to advise the public that a meeting of the Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee (ATPAC) will be held to review present air traffic control procedures and practices for standardization, revision, clarification, and upgrading of terminology and procedures.

77 FR 2603 - Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-18

...The FAA is issuing this notice to advise the public that a meeting of the Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee (ATPAC) will be held to review present air traffic control procedures and practices for standardization, revision, clarification, and upgrading of terminology and procedures.

78 FR 2711 - Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-14

...The FAA is issuing this notice to advise the public that a meeting of the Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee (ATPAC) will be held to review present air traffic control procedures and practices for standardization, revision, clarification, and upgrading of terminology and procedures.

76 FR 27168 - Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee

Science.gov (United States)

2011-05-10

...The FAA is issuing this notice to advise the public that a meeting of the Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee (ATPAC) will be held to review present air traffic control procedures and practices for standardization, revision, clarification, and upgrading of terminology and procedures.

Formal Methods in Air Traffic Management: The Case of Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Munoz, Cesar A.

2015-01-01

As the technological and operational capabilities of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) continue to grow, so too does the need to introduce these systems into civil airspace. Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in the National Airspace System is a NASA research project that addresses the integration of civil UAS into non-segregated airspace operations. One of the major challenges of this integration is the lack of an onboard pilot to comply with the legal requirement that pilots see and avoid other aircraft. The need to provide an equivalent to this requirement for UAS has motivated the development of a detect and avoid (DAA) capability to provide the appropriate situational awareness and maneuver guidance in avoiding and remaining well clear of traffic aircraft. Formal methods has played a fundamental role in the development of this capability. This talk reports on the formal methods work conducted under NASA's Safe Autonomous System Operations project in support of the development of DAA for UAS. This work includes specification of low-level and high-level functional requirements, formal verification of algorithms, and rigorous validation of software implementations. The talk also discusses technical challenges in formal methods research in the context of the development and safety analysis of advanced air traffic management concepts.

Conflict Resolution Automation and Pilot Situation Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Dao, Arik-Quang V.; Brandt, Summer L.; Bacon, Paige; Kraut, Josh; Nguyen, Jimmy; Minakata, Katsumi; Raza, Hamzah; Rozovski, David; Johnson, Walter W.

2010-01-01

This study compared pilot situation awareness across three traffic management concepts. The Concepts varied in terms of the allocation of traffic avoidance responsibility between the pilot on the flight deck, the air traffic controllers, and a conflict resolution automation system. In Concept 1, the flight deck was equipped with conflict resolution tools that enable them to fully handle the responsibility of weather avoidance and maintaining separation between ownship and surrounding traffic. In Concept 2, pilots were not responsible for traffic separation, but were provided tools for weather and traffic avoidance. In Concept 3, flight deck tools allowed pilots to deviate for weather, but conflict detection tools were disabled. In this concept pilots were dependent on ground based automation for conflict detection and resolution. Situation awareness of the pilots was measured using online probes. Results showed that individual situation awareness was highest in Concept 1, where the pilots were most engaged, and lowest in Concept 3, where automation was heavily used. These findings suggest that for conflict resolution tasks, situation awareness is improved when pilots remain in the decision-making loop.

Design Principles and Algorithms for Air Traffic Arrival Scheduling

Science.gov (United States)

Erzberger, Heinz; Itoh, Eri

2014-01-01

This report presents design principles and algorithms for building a real-time scheduler of arrival aircraft based on a first-come-first-served (FCFS) scheduling protocol. The algorithms provide the conceptual and computational foundation for the Traffic Management Advisor (TMA) of the Center/terminal radar approach control facilities (TRACON) automation system, which comprises a set of decision support tools for managing arrival traffic at major airports in the United States. The primary objective of the scheduler is to assign arrival aircraft to a favorable landing runway and schedule them to land at times that minimize delays. A further objective of the scheduler is to allocate delays between high-altitude airspace far away from the airport and low-altitude airspace near the airport. A method of delay allocation is described that minimizes the average operating cost in the presence of errors in controlling aircraft to a specified landing time. This report is a revision of an earlier paper first presented as part of an Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development (AGARD) lecture series in September 1995. The authors, during vigorous discussions over the details of this paper, felt it was important to the air-trafficmanagement (ATM) community to revise and extend the original 1995 paper, providing more detail and clarity and thereby allowing future researchers to understand this foundational work as the basis for the TMA's scheduling algorithms.

Traffic improvement and transportation pollution control in Xiamen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dongxing Yuan; Zilin, Wu

1996-12-31

in this paper, the urban traffic improvement and transportation control in Xiamen are highlighted. Xiamen is a port city and an economical special zone of China. As the economy grows, the transportation is developing dramatically and becoming the key for further economic development. The air quality is threatened by the rapid growth of the vehicles in the city. The most urgent task in improving urban traffic is to establish a sound traffic system. The municipal government takes great effort to improve the traffic condition, as well as to reduce green house gases and protect air environment. Some management and technical measures are carried out. Those management measures are mainly as follows: (1) systematic planning of the city arrangement and city functional division, and integrated planning of the urban roads system, (2) putting great emphasis on tail gas monitoring and management, and (3) establishing optimized utilization of motor vehicles. Those included in the main technical measures are (1) making the roads clear, (2) enlarging traffic capacity, and (3) developing the public transport. The most urgent task in improving urban traffic is to establish a sound traffic system. The city municipal government and Transportation Management Bureau plan to make a series of reforms to improve the urban traffic condition, such as building high quality road around the city, reducing the number of one way roads and replacing gasoline buses with electric buses. An optimized traffic system of Xiamen, taking public transport as the main means, is the key to meet the needs of both traffic improvement and urban transportation pollution control.

Development of an Automated Decision-Making Tool for Supervisory Control System

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cetiner, Sacit M. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Muhlheim, Michael David [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Flanagan, George F. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Fugate, David L. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Kisner, Roger A. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

2014-09-01

This technical report was generated as a product of the Supervisory Control for Multi-Modular Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Plants project within the Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface technology area under the Advanced Small Modular Reactor (AdvSMR) Research and Development Program of the US Department of Energy. The report documents the definition of strategies, functional elements, and the structural architecture of a supervisory control system for multi-modular AdvSMR plants. This research activity advances the state of the art by incorporating real-time, probabilistic-based decision-making into the supervisory control system architectural layers through the introduction of a tiered-plant system approach. The report provides background information on the state of the art of automated decision-making, including the description of existing methodologies. It then presents a description of a generalized decision-making framework, upon which the supervisory control decision-making algorithm is based. The probabilistic portion of automated decision-making is demonstrated through a simple hydraulic loop example.

Traffic Flow Visualization and Control

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Larson, Robert

1999-01-01

.... Air Force Research Laboratory. It is a video-camera-based, wide-area, traffic surveillance and detection system that provides real-time traffic information to traffic management center operators...

Rerouting algorithms solving the air traffic congestion

Science.gov (United States)

Adacher, Ludovica; Flamini, Marta; Romano, Elpidio

2017-06-01

Congestion in the air traffic network is a problem with an increasing relevance for airlines costs as well as airspace safety. One of the major issue is the limited operative capacity of the air network. In this work an Autonomous Agent approach is proposed to solve in real time the problem of air traffic congestion. The air traffic infrastructures are modeled with a graph and are considered partitioned in different sectors. Each sector has its own decision agent dealing with the air traffic control involved in it. Each agent sector imposes a real time aircraft scheduling to respect both delay and capacity constrains. When a congestion is predicted, a new aircraft scheduling is computed. Congestion is solved when the capacity constrains are satisfied once again. This can be done by delaying on ground aircraft or/and rerouting aircraft and/or postponing the congestion. We have tested two different algorithms that calculate K feasible paths for each aircraft involved in the congestion. Some results are reported on North Italian air space.

Effects of an alternating work shift on air traffic controllers and the relationship with excessive daytime sleepiness and stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Freitas, Ângela M; Portuguez, Mirna Wetters; Russomano, Thaís; Freitas, Marcos de; Silvello, Silvio Luis da Silva; Costa, Jaderson Costa da

2017-10-01

To evaluate symptoms of stress and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in air traffic control (ATC) officers in Brazil. Fifty-two ATC officers participated, based at three air traffic control units, identified as A, B and C. Stress symptoms were assessed using the Lipp Inventory of Stress Symptoms for Adults, and EDS by the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. The sample mean age was 37 years, 76.9% of whom were male. Excessive daytime sleepiness was identified in 25% of the ATC officers, with 84.6% of these based at air traffic control unit A, which has greater air traffic flow, operating a 24-hour alternating work shift schedule. A total of 16% of the ATC officers had stress symptoms, and of these, 62% showed a predominance of physical symptoms. The high percentage of ATC officers with EDS identified in group A may be related to chronodisruption due to night work and alternating shifts.

Determinants of European air traffic development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tomislav MIHETEC

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The paper elaborates main determinants of the strategic development as well as the key factors, which influence European air traffic dynamics. The problem of European airspace fragmentation should be solved by the comprehensive dynamic harmonization programmes, which can contribute to effective increase of airspace capacity and increase of air transport efficiency. The main objective of development strategy refers to the implementation of reformation processes of the European air traffic management system through functional ATM regionalization and adoption of Single European Sky legislation.

Evaluation of head-free eye tracking as an input device for air traffic control.

Science.gov (United States)

Alonso, Roland; Causse, Mickaël; Vachon, François; Parise, Robert; Dehais, Frédéric; Terrier, Patrice

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility to integrate a free head motion eye-tracking system as input device in air traffic control (ATC) activity. Sixteen participants used an eye tracker to select targets displayed on a screen as quickly and accurately as possible. We assessed the impact of the presence of visual feedback about gaze position and the method of target selection on selection performance under different difficulty levels induced by variations in target size and target-to-target separation. We tend to consider that the combined use of gaze dwell-time selection and continuous eye-gaze feedback was the best condition as it suits naturally with gaze displacement over the ATC display and free the hands of the controller, despite a small cost in terms of selection speed. In addition, target size had a greater impact on accuracy and selection time than target distance. These findings provide guidelines on possible further implementation of eye tracking in ATC everyday activity. We investigated the possibility to integrate a free head motion eye-tracking system as input device in air traffic control (ATC). We found that the combined use of gaze dwell-time selection and continuous eye-gaze feedback allowed the best performance and that target size had a greater impact on performance than target distance.

A GPS-based Real-time Road Traffic Monitoring System

Science.gov (United States)

Tanti, Kamal Kumar

In recent years, monitoring systems are astonishingly inclined towards ever more automatic; reliably interconnected, distributed and autonomous operation. Specifically, the measurement, logging, data processing and interpretation activities may be carried out by separate units at different locations in near real-time. The recent evolution of mobile communication devices and communication technologies has fostered a growing interest in the GIS & GPS-based location-aware systems and services. This paper describes a real-time road traffic monitoring system based on integrated mobile field devices (GPS/GSM/IOs) working in tandem with advanced GIS-based application software providing on-the-fly authentications for real-time monitoring and security enhancement. The described system is developed as a fully automated, continuous, real-time monitoring system that employs GPS sensors and Ethernet and/or serial port communication techniques are used to transfer data between GPS receivers at target points and a central processing computer. The data can be processed locally or remotely based on the requirements of client’s satisfaction. Due to the modular architecture of the system, other sensor types may be supported with minimal effort. Data on the distributed network & measurements are transmitted via cellular SIM cards to a Control Unit, which provides for post-processing and network management. The Control Unit may be remotely accessed via an Internet connection. The new system will not only provide more consistent data about the road traffic conditions but also will provide methods for integrating with other Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). For communication between the mobile device and central monitoring service GSM technology is used. The resulting system is characterized by autonomy, reliability and a high degree of automation.

Hyper-Spectral Networking Concept of Operations and Future Air Traffic Management Simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Paul; Boisvert, Benjamin

2017-01-01

The NASA sponsored Hyper-Spectral Communications and Networking for Air Traffic Management (ATM) (HSCNA) project is conducting research to improve the operational efficiency of the future National Airspace System (NAS) through diverse and secure multi-band, multi-mode, and millimeter-wave (mmWave) wireless links. Worldwide growth of air transportation and the coming of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) will increase air traffic density and complexity. Safe coordination of aircraft will require more capable technologies for communications, navigation, and surveillance (CNS). The HSCNA project will provide a foundation for technology and operational concepts to accommodate a significantly greater number of networked aircraft. This paper describes two of the HSCNA projects technical challenges. The first technical challenge is to develop a multi-band networking concept of operations (ConOps) for use in multiple phases of flight and all communication link types. This ConOps will integrate the advanced technologies explored by the HSCNA project and future operational concepts into a harmonized vision of future NAS communications and networking. The second technical challenge discussed is to conduct simulations of future ATM operations using multi-bandmulti-mode networking and technologies. Large-scale simulations will assess the impact, compared to todays system, of the new and integrated networks and technologies under future air traffic demand.

From ethnography to the EAST method: a tractable approach for representing distributed cognition in Air Traffic Control.

Science.gov (United States)

Walker, Guy H; Stanton, Neville A; Baber, Chris; Wells, Linda; Gibson, Huw; Salmon, Paul; Jenkins, Daniel

2010-02-01

Command and control is a generic activity involving the exercise of authority over assigned resources, combined with planning, coordinating and controlling how those resources are used. The challenge for understanding this type of activity is that it is not often amenable to the conventional experimental/methodological approach. Command and control tends to be multi-faceted (so requires more than one method), is made up of interacting socio and technical elements (so requires a systemic approach) and exhibits aggregate behaviours that emerge from these interactions (so requires methods that go beyond reductionism). In these circumstances a distributed cognition approach is highly appropriate yet the existing ethnographic methods make it difficult to apply and, for non-specialist audiences, sometimes difficult to meaningfully interpret. The Event Analysis for Systemic Teamwork method is put forward as a means of working from a distributed cognition perspective but in a way that goes beyond ethnography. A worked example from Air Traffic Control is used to illustrate how the language of social science can be translated into the language of systems analysis. Statement of Relevance: Distributed cognition provides a highly appropriate conceptual response to complex work settings such as Air Traffic Control. This paper deals with how to realise those benefits in practice without recourse to problematic ethnographic techniques.

Fuzzy Logic Based Autonomous Traffic Control System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad ABBAS

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to design and implement fuzzy logic based traffic light Control system to solve the traffic congestion issues. In this system four input parameters: Arrival, Queue, Pedestrian and Emergency Vehicle and two output parameters: Extension in Green and Pedestrian Signals are used. Using Fuzzy Rule Base, the system extends or terminates the Green Signal according to the Traffic situation at the junction. On the presence of emergency vehicle, the system decides which signal(s should be red and how much an extension should be given to Green Signal for Emergency Vehicle. The system also monitors the density of people and makes decisions accordingly. In order to verify the proposed design algorithm MATLAB simulation is adopted and results obtained show concurrency to the calculated values according to the Mamdani Model of the Fuzzy Control System.

Day-to-day evolution of the traffic network with Advanced Traveler Information System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Han Linghui; Sun Huijun; Wu Jianjun; Zhu Chengjuan

2011-01-01

Highlights: → We develop a dynamical system with Advanced Travelers Information System (ATIS). → We use the dynamical system to study stability of the traffic network with ATIS. → It is found that some periodic attractors appear in some cases. → A road pricing is implemented to alleviate the instability of the traffic network with ATIS. - Abstract: Since the notion of user equilibrium (UE) was proposed by Wardrop , it has become a cornerstone for traffic assignment analysis. But, it is not sufficient to only ask whether equilibrium exists or not; it is equally important to ask whether and how the system can achieve equilibrium. Meanwhile, stability is an important performance in the sense that if equilibrium is unsustainable, both the equilibrium and the trajectory are sensitive to disturbances, even a small perturbation will result in the system evolution away from the equilibrium point. These incentive a growing interest in day-to-day dynamics. In this paper, we develop a dynamical system with Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS) and study the stability of the network with ATIS. A simple network is used to simulate the model, and the results show that there exist periodic attractors in the traffic network in some cases (for example, the market penetration level of ATIS is 0.25 and traffic demand is 2 unit). It is found that the logit parameter of the dynamical model and the traffic demand can also affect the stability of the traffic network. More periodic attractors appear in the system when the traffic demand is large and the low logit parameter can delay the appearance of periodic attractors. By simulation, it can be concluded that if the range of the periodic attractors' domain of the simple network is known, the road pricing based on the range of the attraction domain is effective to alleviate the instability of the system.

Air Traffic Management Technology Demostration Phase 1 (ATD) Interval Management for Near-Term Operations Validation of Acceptability (IM-NOVA) Experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Kibler, Jennifer L.; Wilson, Sara R.; Hubbs, Clay E.; Smail, James W.

2015-01-01

The Interval Management for Near-term Operations Validation of Acceptability (IM-NOVA) experiment was conducted at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center (LaRC) in support of the NASA Airspace Systems Program's Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration-1 (ATD-1). ATD-1 is intended to showcase an integrated set of technologies that provide an efficient arrival solution for managing aircraft using Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) surveillance, navigation, procedures, and automation for both airborne and ground-based systems. The goal of the IMNOVA experiment was to assess if procedures outlined by the ATD-1 Concept of Operations were acceptable to and feasible for use by flight crews in a voice communications environment when used with a minimum set of Flight Deck-based Interval Management (FIM) equipment and a prototype crew interface. To investigate an integrated arrival solution using ground-based air traffic control tools and aircraft Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) tools, the LaRC FIM system and the Traffic Management Advisor with Terminal Metering and Controller Managed Spacing tools developed at the NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) were integrated into LaRC's Air Traffic Operations Laboratory (ATOL). Data were collected from 10 crews of current 757/767 pilots asked to fly a high-fidelity, fixed-based simulator during scenarios conducted within an airspace environment modeled on the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) Terminal Radar Approach Control area. The aircraft simulator was equipped with the Airborne Spacing for Terminal Area Routes (ASTAR) algorithm and a FIM crew interface consisting of electronic flight bags and ADS-B guidance displays. Researchers used "pseudo-pilot" stations to control 24 simulated aircraft that provided multiple air traffic flows into the DFW International Airport, and recently retired DFW air traffic controllers served as confederate Center, Feeder, Final

Development of Traffic Accidents Control System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrey Borisovich Nikolaev

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Proposed a structure of traffic accidents control system included three main parts: pre-processing, decision support and monitoring. For decision support systems we propose a method that allows to make decisions on the basis of fuzzy situational management. The advantage of the method: it allows to formalize a set of typical traffic situations, using the theory of fuzzy sets and to carry out selection of the desired management action.

Estimation and Control of Networked Distributed Parameter Systems: Application to Traffic Flow

KAUST Repository

Canepa, Edward

2016-11-01

The management of large-scale transportation infrastructure is becoming a very complex task for the urban areas of this century which are covering bigger geographic spaces and facing the inclusion of connected and self-controlled vehicles. This new system paradigm can leverage many forms of sensing and interaction, including a high-scale mobile sensing approach. To obtain a high penetration sensing system on urban areas more practical and scalable platforms are needed, combined with estimation algorithms suitable to the computational capabilities of these platforms. The purpose of this work was to develop a transportation framework that is able to handle different kinds of sensing data (e.g., connected vehicles, loop detectors) and optimize the traffic state on a defined traffic network. The framework estimates the traffic on road networks modeled by a family of Lighthill-Whitham-Richards equations. Based on an equivalent formulation of the problem using a Hamilton-Jacobi equation and using a semi-analytic formula, I will show that the model constraints resulting from the Hamilton-Jacobi equation are linear, albeit with unknown integer variables. This general framework solve exactly a variety of problems arising in transportation networks: traffic estimation, traffic control (including robust control), cybersecurity and sensor fault detection, or privacy analysis of users in probe-based traffic monitoring systems. This framework is very flexible, fast, and yields exact results. The recent advances in sensors (GPS, inertial measurement units) and microprocessors enable the development low-cost dedicated devices for traffic sensing in cities, 5 which are highly scalable, providing a feasible solution to cover large urban areas. However, one of the main problems to address is the privacy of the users of the transportation system, the framework presented here is a viable option to guarantee the privacy of the users by design.

Semantic Representation and Scale-Up of Integrated Air Traffic Management Data

Science.gov (United States)

Keller, Richard M.; Ranjan, Shubha; Wei, Mie; Eshow, Michelle

2016-01-01

Each day, the global air transportation industry generates a vast amount of heterogeneous data from air carriers, air traffic control providers, and secondary aviation entities handling baggage, ticketing, catering, fuel delivery, and other services. Generally, these data are stored in isolated data systems, separated from each other by significant political, regulatory, economic, and technological divides. These realities aside, integrating aviation data into a single, queryable, big data store could enable insights leading to major efficiency, safety, and cost advantages. In this paper, we describe an implemented system for combining heterogeneous air traffic management data using semantic integration techniques. The system transforms data from its original disparate source formats into a unified semantic representation within an ontology-based triple store. Our initial prototype stores only a small sliver of air traffic data covering one day of operations at a major airport. The paper also describes our analysis of difficulties ahead as we prepare to scale up data storage to accommodate successively larger quantities of data -- eventually covering all US commercial domestic flights over an extended multi-year timeframe. We review several approaches to mitigating scale-up related query performance concerns.

Neurotoxicity of traffic-related air pollution.

Science.gov (United States)

Costa, Lucio G; Cole, Toby B; Coburn, Jacki; Chang, Yu-Chi; Dao, Khoi; Roqué, Pamela J

2017-03-01

The central nervous system is emerging as an important target for adverse health effects of air pollution, where it may contribute to neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Air pollution comprises several components, including particulate matter (PM) and ultrafine particulate matter (UFPM), gases, organic compounds, and metals. An important source of ambient PM and UFPM is represented by traffic-related air pollution, primarily diesel exhaust (DE). Human epidemiological studies and controlled animal studies have shown that exposure to air pollution, and to traffic-related air pollution or DE in particular, may lead to neurotoxicity. In particular, air pollution is emerging as a possible etiological factor in neurodevelopmental (e.g. autism spectrum disorders) and neurodegenerative (e.g. Alzheimer's disease) disorders. The most prominent effects caused by air pollution in both humans and animals are oxidative stress and neuro-inflammation. Studies in mice acutely exposed to DE (250-300μg/m 3 for 6h) have shown microglia activation, increased lipid peroxidation, and neuro-inflammation in various brain regions, particularly the hippocampus and the olfactory bulb. An impairment of adult neurogenesis was also found. In most cases, the effects of DE were more pronounced in male mice, possibly because of lower antioxidant abilities due to lower expression of paraoxonase 2. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Advances in Computer, Communication, Control and Automation

CERN Document Server

011 International Conference on Computer, Communication, Control and Automation

2012-01-01

The volume includes a set of selected papers extended and revised from the 2011 International Conference on Computer, Communication, Control and Automation (3CA 2011). 2011 International Conference on Computer, Communication, Control and Automation (3CA 2011) has been held in Zhuhai, China, November 19-20, 2011. This volume  topics covered include signal and Image processing, speech and audio Processing, video processing and analysis, artificial intelligence, computing and intelligent systems, machine learning, sensor and neural networks, knowledge discovery and data mining, fuzzy mathematics and Applications, knowledge-based systems, hybrid systems modeling and design, risk analysis and management, system modeling and simulation. We hope that researchers, graduate students and other interested readers benefit scientifically from the proceedings and also find it stimulating in the process.

Evaluation of operators' mental workload of human-system interface automation in the advanced nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jou, Y.-T.; Yenn, T.-C.; Lin, Chiuhsiang Joe; Yang, C.-W.; Chiang, C.-C.

2009-01-01

It has been expected that the automation of certain tasks in a control room would help decrease operators' mental workload, enhance situation awareness, and improve the whole system performance. However, there have been too many automation-induced system failures that would warrant a fresh look on the influences of automation. Automation problems include the reduction in the operator's system awareness, an increase in monitoring workload, and the degradation in manual skills. This study evaluates operators' mental workload and system performance during a human-system interface (HSI) automation in an advanced nuclear power plant (NPP). The reactor shutdown task and alarm reset task simulations were conducted in this study to evaluate operators' mental workload and performance. The results of this study indicated that for ensuring safe operating in NPPs, the design of automation needs to be carefully implemented. Task characteristics and degrees of automation should be carefully evaluated while designing HSIs. The reactor shutdown tasks studied in this paper suggest that a high level of automation design for the long period and low workload would be sufficient. On the other hand, the degree of automation of alarm reset task does not show a significant difference to the operator's mental workload. In conclusion, the human-system interface automation in advanced NPPs is suggested to be more flexible and needs to be continually improved.

Scheduling and control strategies for the departure problem in air traffic control

Science.gov (United States)

Bolender, Michael Alan

Two problems relating to the departure problem in air traffic control automation are examined. The first problem that is addressed is the scheduling of aircraft for departure. The departure operations at a major US hub airport are analyzed, and a discrete event simulation of the departure operations is constructed. Specifically, the case where there is a single departure runway is considered. The runway is fed by two queues of aircraft. Each queue, in turn, is fed by a single taxiway. Two salient areas regarding scheduling are addressed. The first is the construction of optimal departure sequences for the aircraft that are queued. Several greedy search algorithms are designed to minimize the total time to depart a set of queued aircraft. Each algorithm has a different set of heuristic rules to resolve situations within the search space whenever two branches of the search tree with equal edge costs are encountered. These algorithms are then compared and contrasted with a genetic search algorithm in order to assess the performance of the heuristics. This is done in the context of a static departure problem where the length of the departure queue is fixed. A greedy algorithm which deepens the search whenever two branches of the search tree with non-unique costs are encountered is shown to outperform the other heuristic algorithms. This search strategy is then implemented in the discrete event simulation. A baseline performance level is established, and a sensitivity analysis is performed by implementing changes in traffic mix, routing, and miles-in-trail restrictions for comparison. It is concluded that to minimize the average time spent in the queue for different traffic conditions, a queue assignment algorithm is needed to maintain an even balance of aircraft in the queues. A necessary consideration is to base queue assignment upon traffic management restrictions such as miles-in-trail constraints. The second problem addresses the technical challenges associated

Dynamic methods of air traffic flow management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jacek SKORUPSKI

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Air traffic management is a complex hierarchical system. Hierarchy levels can be defined according to decision making time horizon or to analyze area volume. For medium time horizon and wide analysis area, the air traffic flow management services were established. Their main task is to properly co-ordinate air traffic in European airspace, so as to minimize delays arising in congested sectors. Those services have to assure high safety level at the same time. Thus it is a very complex task, with many goals, many decision variables and many constraints.In the paper review of the methods developed for aiding air traffic flow management services is presented. More detailed description of a dynamic method is given. This method is based on stochastic capacity and scenario analysis. Some problems in utilization of presented methods are also pointed out, so are the next research possibilities.

TCP/IP Communication System for Controlling a Vehicular Traffic Intersection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pedraza-Martínez Luis Fernando

2013-10-01

Full Text Available This paper describes the development of a prototype of a vehicular traffic controller, whose system of communication is based on the TCP/IP protocol, in order to re- motely monitor and control the operation of traffic lights for a vehicular intersection. The results show the times of communication between the central and the traffic controller. The conclusions highlight the importance of using the TCP/IP protocol in traffic light systems.

Load Segmentation for Convergence of Distribution Automation and Advanced Metering Infrastructure Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Pamulaparthy, Balakrishna; KS, Swarup; Kommu, Rajagopal

2014-12-01

Distribution automation (DA) applications are limited to feeder level today and have zero visibility outside of the substation feeder and reaching down to the low-voltage distribution network level. This has become a major obstacle in realizing many automated functions and enhancing existing DA capabilities. Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems are being widely deployed by utilities across the world creating system-wide communications access to every monitoring and service point, which collects data from smart meters and sensors in short time intervals, in response to utility needs. DA and AMI systems convergence provides unique opportunities and capabilities for distribution grid modernization with the DA system acting as a controller and AMI system acting as feedback to DA system, for which DA applications have to understand and use the AMI data selectively and effectively. In this paper, we propose a load segmentation method that helps the DA system to accurately understand and use the AMI data for various automation applications with a suitable case study on power restoration.

75 FR 63255 - Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee Meeting

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-14

...The FAA is issuing this notice to advise the public that a meeting of the Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee (ATPAC) will be held to review present air traffic control procedures and practices for standardization, revision, clarification, and upgrading of terminology and procedures.

Discrete events simulation of a route with traffic lights through automated control in real time

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rodrigo César Teixeira Baptista

2013-03-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the integration and communication in real-time of a discrete event simulation model with an automatic control system. The simulation model of an intersection with roads having traffic lights was built in the Arena environment. The integration and communication have been made via network, and the control system was operated by a programmable logic controller. Scenarios were simulated for the free, regular and congested traffic situations. The results showed the average number of vehicles that entered in the system and that were retained and also the total average time of the crossing of the vehicles on the road. In general, the model allowed evaluating the behavior of the traffic in each of the ways and the commands from the controller to activation and deactivation of the traffic lights.

Advanced paratransit system : an application of digital map, automated vehicle scheduling and vehicle location systems

Science.gov (United States)

1997-05-01

This report documents and evaluates an advanced Paratransit system demonstration project. The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Agency (SCVTA), via OUTREACH, implemented such a system, comprised of an automated trip scheduling system (ATSS) and autom...

Management by Trajectory Trade Study of Roles and Responsibilities Between Participants and Automation Report

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandes, Alicia D.; Kaler, Curt; Leiden, Kenneth; Atkins, Stephen; Bell, Alan; Kilbourne, Todd; Evans, Mark

2017-01-01

This report describes a trade study of roles and responsibilities associated with the Management by Trajectory (MBT) concept. The MBT concept describes roles, responsibilities, and information and automation requirements for providing air traffic controllers and managers the ability to quickly generate, evaluate and implement changes to an aircraft's trajectory. In addition, the MBT concept describes mechanisms for imposing constraints on flight operator preferred trajectories only to the extent necessary to maintain safe and efficient traffic flows, and the concept provides a method for the exchange of trajectory information between ground automation systems and the aircraft that allows for trajectory synchronization and trajectory negotiation. The participant roles considered in this trade study include: airline dispatcher, flight crew, radar controller, traffic manager, and Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC) traffic management specialists. The proposed allocation of roles and responsibilities was based on analysis of several use cases that were developed for this purpose as well as for walking through concept elements. The resulting allocation of roles and responsibilities reflects both increased automation capability to support many aviation functions, as well as increased flexibility to assign responsibilities to different participants - in many cases afforded by the increased automation capabilities. Note that the selection of participants to consider for allocation of each function is necessarily rooted in the current environment, in that MBT is envisioned as an evolution of the National Airspace System (NAS), and not a revolution. A key feature of the MBT allocations is a vision for the traffic management specialist to take on a greater role. This is facilitated by the vision that separation management functions, in addition to traffic management functions, will be carried out as trajectory management functions. This creates an opportunity

77 FR 67862 - Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee

Science.gov (United States)

2012-11-14

...The FAA is issuing this notice to advise the public that the FAA's Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee (ATPAC) two year charter has been coordinated and signed by the FAA Administrator. The ATPAC charter is valid for two years and provides a venue to review air traffic control procedures and practices for standardization, revision, clarification, and upgrading of terminology and procedures.

77 FR 27835 - Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee

Science.gov (United States)

2012-05-11

...The FAA is issuing this notice to advise the public that a meeting of the Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Procedures Advisory Committee (ATPAC) will be held to review present air traffic control procedures and practices for standardization, revision, clarification, and upgrading of terminology and procedures. Class B airspace will be a major topic of discussion on the ATPAC Agenda.

Air traffic controllers' long-term speech-in-noise training effects: A control group study.

Science.gov (United States)

Zaballos, Maria T P; Plasencia, Daniel P; González, María L Z; de Miguel, Angel R; Macías, Ángel R

2016-01-01

Speech perception in noise relies on the capacity of the auditory system to process complex sounds using sensory and cognitive skills. The possibility that these can be trained during adulthood is of special interest in auditory disorders, where speech in noise perception becomes compromised. Air traffic controllers (ATC) are constantly exposed to radio communication, a situation that seems to produce auditory learning. The objective of this study has been to quantify this effect. 19 ATC and 19 normal hearing individuals underwent a speech in noise test with three signal to noise ratios: 5, 0 and -5 dB. Noise and speech were presented through two different loudspeakers in azimuth position. Speech tokes were presented at 65 dB SPL, while white noise files were at 60, 65 and 70 dB respectively. Air traffic controllers outperform the control group in all conditions [P<0.05 in ANOVA and Mann-Whitney U tests]. Group differences were largest in the most difficult condition, SNR=-5 dB. However, no correlation between experience and performance were found for any of the conditions tested. The reason might be that ceiling performance is achieved much faster than the minimum experience time recorded, 5 years, although intrinsic cognitive abilities cannot be disregarded. ATC demonstrated enhanced ability to hear speech in challenging listening environments. This study provides evidence that long-term auditory training is indeed useful in achieving better speech-in-noise understanding even in adverse conditions, although good cognitive qualities are likely to be a basic requirement for this training to be effective. Our results show that ATC outperform the control group in all conditions. Thus, this study provides evidence that long-term auditory training is indeed useful in achieving better speech-in-noise understanding even in adverse conditions.

Validation of the Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Control Specialist Pre-Training Screen.

Science.gov (United States)

1994-02-01

Two formal validation studies of the Air Traffic Control Specialist Pre Training Screen (ATCS/PTS), a 5 day computer administered test battery, are described. The ATCS/PTS was designed to replace the 9 week US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Ac...

Modeling Air Traffic Situation Complexity with a Dynamic Weighted Network Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hongyong Wang

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In order to address the flight delays and risks associated with the forecasted increase in air traffic, there is a need to increase the capacity of air traffic management systems. This should be based on objective measurements of traffic situation complexity. In current air traffic complexity research, no simple means is available to integrate airspace and traffic flow characteristics. In this paper, we propose a new approach for the measurement of air traffic situation complexity. This approach considers the effects of both airspace and traffic flow and objectively quantifies air traffic situation complexity. Considering the aircraft, waypoints, and airways as nodes, and the complexity relationships among these nodes as edges, a dynamic weighted network is constructed. Air traffic situation complexity is defined as the sum of the weights of all edges in the network, and the relationships of complexity with some commonly used indices are statistically analyzed. The results indicate that the new complexity index is more accurate than traffic count and reflects the number of trajectory changes as well as the high-risk situations. Additionally, analysis of potential applications reveals that this new index contributes to achieving complexity-based management, which represents an efficient method for increasing airspace system capacity.

UAS Air Traffic Controller Acceptability Study-2: Effects of Communications Delays and Winds in Simulation

Science.gov (United States)

Comstock, James R., Jr.; Ghatas, Rania W.; Consiglio, Maria C.; Chamberlain, James P.; Hoffler, Keith D.

2016-01-01

This study evaluated the effects of Communications Delays and Winds on Air Traffic Controller ratings of acceptability of horizontal miss distances (HMDs) for encounters between UAS and manned aircraft in a simulation of the Dallas-Ft. Worth East-side airspace. Fourteen encounters per hour were staged in the presence of moderate background traffic. Seven recently retired controllers with experience at DFW served as subjects. Guidance provided to the UAS pilots for maintaining a given HMD was provided by information from self-separation algorithms displayed on the Multi-Aircraft Simulation System. Winds tested did not affect the acceptability ratings. Communications delays tested included 0, 400, 1200, and 1800 msec. For longer communications delays, there were changes in strategy and communications flow that were observed and reported by the controllers. The aim of this work is to provide useful information for guiding future rules and regulations applicable to flying UAS in the NAS.

NASA Langley and NLR Research of Distributed Air/Ground Traffic Management

Science.gov (United States)

Ballin, Mark G.; Hoekstra, Jacco M.; Wing, David J.; Lohr, Gary W.

2002-01-01

Distributed Air/Ground Traffic Management (DAG-TM) is a concept of future air traffic operations that proposes to distribute information, decision-making authority, and responsibility among flight crews, the air traffic service provider, and aeronautical operational control organizations. This paper provides an overview and status of DAG-TM research at NASA Langley Research Center and the National Aerospace Laboratory of The Netherlands. Specific objectives of the research are to evaluate the technical and operational feasibility of the autonomous airborne component of DAG-TM, which is founded on the operational paradigm of free flight. The paper includes an overview of research approaches, the airborne technologies under development, and a summary of experimental investigations and findings to date. Although research is not yet complete, these findings indicate that free flight is feasible and will significantly enhance system capacity and safety. While free flight cannot alone resolve the complex issues faced by those modernizing the global airspace, it should be considered an essential part of a comprehensive air traffic management modernization activity.

Screening Air Traffic Control Specialists for Psychopathology Using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

King, Raymond E; Schroeder, David J; Manning, Carol A; Retzlaff, Paul D; Williams, Clara A

2008-01-01

...) as a psychological screening tool for conditionally selected FAA Air Traffic Control Specialists (ATCSs). A sample of 1,014 ATCSs in training voluntarily completed the MMPI-2 as part of a research program...

A time-based concept for terminal-area traffic management

Science.gov (United States)

Erzberger, Heinz; Tobias, Leonard

1986-01-01

An automated air-traffic-management concept that has the potential for significantly increasing the efficiency of traffic flows in high-density terminal areas is discussed. The concept's implementation depends on techniques for controlling the landing time of all aircraft entering the terminal area, both those that are equipped with on-board four-dimensional (4D) guidance systems as well as those aircraft types that are conventionally equipped. The two major ground-based elements of the system are a scheduler which assigns conflict-free landing times and a profile descent advisor. Landing time provided by the scheduler is uplinked to equipped aircraft and translated into the appropriate 4D trajectory by the-board flight-management system. The controller issues descent advisories to unequipped aircraft to help them achieve the assigned landing times. Air traffic control simulations have established that the concept provides an efficient method for controlling various mixes of 4D-equipped and unequipped, as well as low- and high-performance, aircraft. Piloted simulations of profiles flown with the aid of advisories have verified the ability to meet specified descent times with prescribed accuracy.

Team performance in networked supervisory control of unmanned air vehicles: effects of automation, working memory, and communication content.

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McKendrick, Ryan; Shaw, Tyler; de Visser, Ewart; Saqer, Haneen; Kidwell, Brian; Parasuraman, Raja

2014-05-01

Assess team performance within a net-worked supervisory control setting while manipulating automated decision aids and monitoring team communication and working memory ability. Networked systems such as multi-unmanned air vehicle (UAV) supervision have complex properties that make prediction of human-system performance difficult. Automated decision aid can provide valuable information to operators, individual abilities can limit or facilitate team performance, and team communication patterns can alter how effectively individuals work together. We hypothesized that reliable automation, higher working memory capacity, and increased communication rates of task-relevant information would offset performance decrements attributed to high task load. Two-person teams performed a simulated air defense task with two levels of task load and three levels of automated aid reliability. Teams communicated and received decision aid messages via chat window text messages. Task Load x Automation effects were significant across all performance measures. Reliable automation limited the decline in team performance with increasing task load. Average team spatial working memory was a stronger predictor than other measures of team working memory. Frequency of team rapport and enemy location communications positively related to team performance, and word count was negatively related to team performance. Reliable decision aiding mitigated team performance decline during increased task load during multi-UAV supervisory control. Team spatial working memory, communication of spatial information, and team rapport predicted team success. An automated decision aid can improve team performance under high task load. Assessment of spatial working memory and the communication of task-relevant information can help in operator and team selection in supervisory control systems.

From crisis to development--analysis of air traffic control work processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Teperi, Anna-Maria; Leppänen, Anneli

2011-03-01

In this study an intervention to improve work processes in air traffic control (ATC) is evaluated. The background was the Finnish air traffic controllers' strike of 1999. The old ways of thinking and acting did not support development of ATC prompting a need for a new kind of working culture in the organisation. Several actions were started. In one of these, ATC work processes were modelled by personnel and development plans concerning work were delivered to top management. Different actors (management, trade union, stakeholders) were interviewed before (n=16) and after the project (n=7). The intervention supported systematic co-operation between different actors in the organisation. However, a follow-up revealed that only a few participants had adopted the idea of continuous work development. Mastery of human factors is crucial in a high reliability work environment such as ATC. But how is the analytical and co-operative aspect kept alive in an organisation that is run by strict international regulation and has a strong technical competence, but is not that strong in collaborative and human aspects? Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

Development of a forecast model for global air traffic emissions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schaefer, Martin

2012-07-01

The thesis describes the methodology and results of a simulation model that quantifies fuel consumption and emissions of civil air traffic. Besides covering historical emissions, the model aims at forecasting emissions in the medium-term future. For this purpose, simulation models of aircraft and engine types are used in combination with a database of global flight movements and assumptions about traffic growth, fleet rollover and operational aspects. Results from an application of the model include emissions of scheduled air traffic for the years 2000 to 2010 as well as forecasted emissions until the year 2030. In a baseline scenario of the forecast, input assumptions (e.g. traffic growth rates) are in line with predictions by the aircraft industry. Considering the effects of advanced technologies of the short-term and medium-term future, the forecast focusses on fuel consumption and emissions of nitric oxides. Calculations for historical air traffic additionally cover emissions of carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons and soot. Results are validated against reference data including studies by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and simulation results from international research projects. (orig.)

Control of Networked Traffic Flow Distribution - A Stochastic Distribution System Perspective

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Hong [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL); Aziz, H M Abdul [ORNL; Young, Stan [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL); Patil, Sagar [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)

2017-10-01

Networked traffic flow is a common scenario for urban transportation, where the distribution of vehicle queues either at controlled intersections or highway segments reflect the smoothness of the traffic flow in the network. At signalized intersections, the traffic queues are controlled by traffic signal control settings and effective traffic lights control would realize both smooth traffic flow and minimize fuel consumption. Funded by the Energy Efficient Mobility Systems (EEMS) program of the Vehicle Technologies Office of the US Department of Energy, we performed a preliminary investigation on the modelling and control framework in context of urban network of signalized intersections. In specific, we developed a recursive input-output traffic queueing models. The queue formation can be modeled as a stochastic process where the number of vehicles entering each intersection is a random number. Further, we proposed a preliminary B-Spline stochastic model for a one-way single-lane corridor traffic system based on theory of stochastic distribution control.. It has been shown that the developed stochastic model would provide the optimal probability density function (PDF) of the traffic queueing length as a dynamic function of the traffic signal setting parameters. Based upon such a stochastic distribution model, we have proposed a preliminary closed loop framework on stochastic distribution control for the traffic queueing system to make the traffic queueing length PDF follow a target PDF that potentially realizes the smooth traffic flow distribution in a concerned corridor.

Future Computer, Communication, Control and Automation

CERN Document Server

2011 International Conference on Computer, Communication, Control and Automation

2012-01-01

The volume includes a set of selected papers extended and revised from the 2011 International Conference on Computer, Communication, Control and Automation (3CA 2011). 2011 International Conference on Computer, Communication, Control and Automation (3CA 2011) has been held in Zhuhai, China, November 19-20, 2011. This volume topics covered include wireless communications, advances in wireless video, wireless sensors networking, security in wireless networks, network measurement and management, hybrid and discrete-event systems, internet analytics and automation, robotic system and applications, reconfigurable automation systems, machine vision in automation. We hope that researchers, graduate students and other interested readers benefit scientifically from the proceedings and also find it stimulating in the process.

Mass casualty tracking with air traffic control methodologies.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoskins, Jason D; Graham, Ross F; Robinson, Duane R; Lutz, Clifford C; Folio, Les R

2009-06-01

An intrahospital casualty throughput system modeled after air traffic control (ATC) tracking procedures was tested in mass casualty exercises. ATC uses a simple tactile process involving informational progress strips representing each aircraft, which are held in bays representing each stage of flight to prioritize and manage aircraft. These strips can be reordered within the bays to indicate a change in priority of aircraft sequence. In this study, a similar system was designed for patient tracking. We compared the ATC model and traditional casualty tracking methods of paper and clipboard in 18 four-hour casualty scenarios, each with 5 to 30 mock casualties. The experimental and control groups were alternated to maximize exposure and minimize training effects. Results were analyzed with Mann-Whitney statistical analysis with p value < 0.05 (two-sided). The ATC method had significantly (p = 0.017) fewer errors in critical patient data (eg, name, social security number, diagnosis). Specifically, the ATC method better tracked the mechanism of injury, working diagnosis, and disposition of patients. The ATC method also performed considerably better with patient accountability during mass casualty scenarios. Data strips were comparable with the control method in terms of ease of use. In addition, participants preferred the ATC method to the control (p = 0.003) and preferred using the ATC method (p = 0.003) to traditional methods in the future. The ATC model more effectively tracked patient data with fewer errors when compared with the clipboard method. Application of these principles can enhance trauma management and can have application in civilian and military trauma centers and emergency rooms.

Traffic supervisory/control system for Kobe-Awaji- Naruto expressway of Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Authority; Honshu Shikoku Renrakukyo Kodan nonyu no Kobe Awaji Naruto jidoshado kotsu kansei shisetsu seigyo system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1999-03-01

Toshiba delivered the traffic supervisory/control system for Kobe-Awaji-Naruto expressway of Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Authority opened in May 1998. This traffic supervisory system rapidly exactly collects and services the information on the expressway of 89km including Akashi Kaikyo bridge and O-Naruto bridge. The facility control system totally efficiently maintains and controls various facilities for lighting and air circulation of tunnels on the expressway. The previous control system transmitted road information on traffic volume and traffic congestion to offices by using specific lines and terminals, while this system with a monitoring function using intranet can easily service such information by existing PCs. (translated by NEDO)

Traffic supervisory/control system for Kobe-Awaji- Naruto expressway of Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Authority. Honshu Shikoku Renrakukyo Kodan nonyu no Kobe Awaji Naruto jidoshado kotsu kansei shisetsu seigyo system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1999-03-01

Toshiba delivered the traffic supervisory/control system for Kobe-Awaji-Naruto expressway of Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Authority opened in May 1998. This traffic supervisory system rapidly exactly collects and services the information on the expressway of 89km including Akashi Kaikyo bridge and O-Naruto bridge. The facility control system totally efficiently maintains and controls various facilities for lighting and air circulation of tunnels on the expressway. The previous control system transmitted road information on traffic volume and traffic congestion to offices by using specific lines and terminals, while this system with a monitoring function using intranet can easily service such information by existing PCs. (translated by NEDO)

General aviation air traffic pattern safety analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, L. C.

1973-01-01

A concept is described for evaluating the general aviation mid-air collision hazard in uncontrolled terminal airspace. Three-dimensional traffic pattern measurements were conducted at uncontrolled and controlled airports. Computer programs for data reduction, storage retrieval and statistical analysis have been developed. Initial general aviation air traffic pattern characteristics are presented. These preliminary results indicate that patterns are highly divergent from the expected standard pattern, and that pattern procedures observed can affect the ability of pilots to see and avoid each other.

Time-based collision risk modeling for air traffic management

Science.gov (United States)

Bell, Alan E.

Since the emergence of commercial aviation in the early part of last century, economic forces have driven a steadily increasing demand for air transportation. Increasing density of aircraft operating in a finite volume of airspace is accompanied by a corresponding increase in the risk of collision, and in response to a growing number of incidents and accidents involving collisions between aircraft, governments worldwide have developed air traffic control systems and procedures to mitigate this risk. The objective of any collision risk management system is to project conflicts and provide operators with sufficient opportunity to recognize potential collisions and take necessary actions to avoid them. It is therefore the assertion of this research that the currency of collision risk management is time. Future Air Traffic Management Systems are being designed around the foundational principle of four dimensional trajectory based operations, a method that replaces legacy first-come, first-served sequencing priorities with time-based reservations throughout the airspace system. This research will demonstrate that if aircraft are to be sequenced in four dimensions, they must also be separated in four dimensions. In order to separate aircraft in four dimensions, time must emerge as the primary tool by which air traffic is managed. A functional relationship exists between the time-based performance of aircraft, the interval between aircraft scheduled to cross some three dimensional point in space, and the risk of collision. This research models that relationship and presents two key findings. First, a method is developed by which the ability of an aircraft to meet a required time of arrival may be expressed as a robust standard for both industry and operations. Second, a method by which airspace system capacity may be increased while maintaining an acceptable level of collision risk is presented and demonstrated for the purpose of formulating recommendations for procedures

Aviation Safety/Automation Program Conference

Science.gov (United States)

Morello, Samuel A. (Compiler)

1990-01-01

The Aviation Safety/Automation Program Conference - 1989 was sponsored by the NASA Langley Research Center on 11 to 12 October 1989. The conference, held at the Sheraton Beach Inn and Conference Center, Virginia Beach, Virginia, was chaired by Samuel A. Morello. The primary objective of the conference was to ensure effective communication and technology transfer by providing a forum for technical interchange of current operational problems and program results to date. The Aviation Safety/Automation Program has as its primary goal to improve the safety of the national airspace system through the development and integration of human-centered automation technologies for aircraft crews and air traffic controllers.

Application of Real-Time Automated Traffic Incident Response Plan Management System: A Web Structure for the Regional Highway Network in China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yongfeng Ma

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Traffic incidents, caused by various factors, may lead to heavy traffic delay and be harmful to traffic capacity of downstream sections. Traffic incident management (TIM systems have been developed widely to respond to traffic incidents intelligently and reduce the losses. Traffic incident response plans, as an important component of TIM, can effectively guide responders as to what and how to do in traffic incidents. In the paper, a real-time automated traffic incident response plan management system was developed, which could generate and manage traffic incident response plans timely and automatically. A web application structure and a physical structure were designed to implement and show these functions. A standard framework of data storage was also developed to save information about traffic incidents and generated response plans. Furthermore, a conformation survey and case-based reasoning (CBR were introduced to identify traffic incident and generate traffic incident response plans automatically, respectively. Twenty-three traffic crash-related incidents were selected and three indicators were used to measure the system performance. Results showed that 20 of 23 cases could be retrieved effectively and accurately. The system is practicable to generate traffic incident response plans and has been implemented in China.

Logistics of International Express Shipping and Air Traffic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jasmina Pašagić Škrinjar

2013-06-01

Full Text Available The paper studies the relations between logistics of international express shipments and air traffic analysing the basic characteristics of international express shipments that are carried by combined transport, usually road vehicles and aircraft. The paper indicates the possibility of optimising individual technological processes in the logistic chain of express shipments distribution. It analyses the forms for the calculation of time slots in single logistic chain hubs of collecting and delivery of express shipments. It has been shown that the international distribution chains in the air express sector, related to the globalisation process, change the traditional functions of combined ground-air transport. Here, the increased investment into automation plays the crucial role in the development strategies of companies and in the operationalization of the quality policy of numerous carriers of express shipments by air.

A Multi-Agent Traffic Control Model Based on Distributed System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qian WU

2014-06-01

Full Text Available With the development of urbanization construction, urban travel has become a quite thorny and imminent problem. Some previous researches on the large urban traffic systems easily change into NPC problems. We purpose a multi-agent inductive control model based on the distributed approach. To describe the real traffic scene, this model designs four different types of intelligent agents, i.e. we regard each lane, route, intersection and traffic region as different types of intelligent agents. Each agent can achieve the real-time traffic data from its neighbor agents, and decision-making agents establish real-time traffic signal plans through the communication between local agents and their neighbor agents. To evaluate the traffic system, this paper takes the average delay, the stopped time and the average speed as performance parameters. Finally, the distributed multi-agent is simulated on the VISSIM simulation platform, the simulation results show that the multi-agent system is more effective than the adaptive control system in solving the traffic congestion.

Quality of Life, Sleep, and Health of Air Traffic Controllers With Rapid Counterclockwise Shift Rotation.

Science.gov (United States)

Sonati, Jaqueline Girnos; De Martino, Milva Maria Figueiredo; Vilarta, Roberto; da Silva Maciel, Érika; Sonati, Renato José Ferreira; Paduan, Paulo Cézar

2016-08-01

Rotating shiftwork is common for air traffic controllers and usually causes sleep deprivation, biological adaptations, and life changes for these workers. This study assessed quality of life, the sleep, and the health of 30 air traffic controllers employed at an international airport in Brazil. The objective was to identify health and quality of life concerns of these professionals. The results identified physical inactivity, overweight, excess body fat, low scores for physical and social relationships, and sleep deprivation for workers in all four workshifts. In conclusion, these workers are at risk for chronic non-transmittable diseases and compromised work performance, suggesting the need for more rest time before working nightshifts and work environments that stimulate physical activity and healthy diets. © 2016 The Author(s).

Automated real-time testing (ARTT) for embedded control systems (ECS)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hawkins, J; Howard, R; Nguyen, H.

2001-01-01

Many of today's automated real-time testing systems for embedded systems were developed using expensive custom hardware and software. In this article they describe how to use commercially available off-the-shelf hardware and software to design and develop an automated real-time test systems for Embedded Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) Based Control Systems. The system development began with the implementation of the VALI/TEST Pro testing methodology as a means for structuring the testing. Using this methodology, they were able to decompose system requirement documents for a Personnel Safety System (PSS) into its high, intermediate and detail level requirements. next, the validation procedures for the PSS system were decomposed into testing units called builds, test runs and test cases. To measure the PSS system's test coverage three levels of system requirements were mapped to their respective unit level of test using a specially constructed validation matrix that was designed to handle over 150 test cases and requirements. All of the above work led to the development of an Automated Real-Time Test System (ARTTS) that is capable of performing complete black box testing in real-time for Embedded PLC Based Control Systems. Also note, that the PSS system under test and mentioned in this paper is located at the Advance Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory Basic Energy Science Facility in Argonne, Illinois