Elaine McCoy

Cooperative Problem-Solving Challenges for the Movement of Aircraft on the Ground

In this paper, we discuss issues surrounding aircraft surface movement that were uncovered through a series of ethnographic investigations, including (a) observations of surface movement operations, (b) structured interviews with airline ramp control and dispatch personnel, and (c) critical incident reports. These results are part of the “problem identification” stage of a study aimed at the design of cognitive tools to improve the safety and efficiency of aircraft surface movement. This study is focusing on such issues from an airline operations control perspective (i.e., ramp control and dispatch). We have identified areas of opportunity for aiding airline staff and controllers in this information-intensive cognitive work, which will lead to identifying the nature of cognitive tools and procedures that could improve prioritization, planning, and coordination during surface movement

Comparison of β-aminoproprionitrile administration with copper-deficiency signs in the rat

Abstract Twenty-four weanling male Long-Evans rats were ad libitum fed either a copper-adequate diet (Cu+, n=12), a copper-deficient diet (Cu-, n=6), or a copper-adequate diet plus the lathrogen β-aminoproprionitrile in drinking water (BAPN-Cu+, n=6) for 6 wk. Cu- rats had depressed serum ceruloplasmin levels but increased heart weight and heart: body weights compared to Cu+ and BAPN-Cu+ rats. Hematocrit levels did not differ by treatment. BAPN-Cu+ rats had lower body weight compared to the other two treatments and lower heart weights compared to Cu+ rats. Serum cholesterol levels were increased in both Cu- and BAPN-Cu+ rats compared to Cu+ rats. Administration of BAPN does not tend to produce similar signs of copper-deficiency with the exception of its cholesterol raising effect.

C-SLANT: an asynchronous communications tool to support distributed work in the National Airspace System

In recent years there have been a number of efforts under the Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) program that have demonstrated the benefits of disseminating both knowledge and goals between organizations in the National Airspace System (NAS), and of collaboratively building decision support tools to assist in the interpretation of the large interrelated dataset produced. The paper describes the development of the Collaborative SLide ANnotation Tool (C-SLANT), an asynchronous communications tool that was developed to support discussion of data from the CDM product Post Operations Evaluation Tool. It is suggested that slide show based, multi-modal, asynchronous, messaging systems appear potentially valuable in this distributed work domain for problem solving during post operations analysis.

Cooperative problem-solving in the air traffic management system

A focus group was held to explore different perspectives on the interactions of operational staff at the airlines and the FAA regarding their real time interactions prior to and during flights. To elicit these different perspectives, four scenarios were prepared based on actual events. The resultant discussion raises issues about information exchange, communication, training and coordination.

Interactions of airline operations control centers with the Air Traffic Management System

A series of three focus groups was held to study the interactions of airline dispatchers with the air traffic management system. This paper reports on the results of the third focus group, which included as participants dispatchers, airline ATC coordinators, an ATCSCC (Air Traffic Control Systems Command Center) specialist and TMOs (Traffic Management Officers) from several ARTCCs. The findings are organized around three topics, including discussions of concerns over traffic management procedures and training.

Initial Experiences with the Expanded National Route Program

One of the goals of the free flight concept is to give the airlines (and other operators) more flexibility in selecting the routes to be flown. This applies to both preflight planning and to flight amendments made while enroute. Exploration of the former, flexibility in preflight planning, has already begun with the implementation of the expended National Route Program (NRP). This paper documents the experiences associated with the introduction of the expanded NRP, and points to areas that must be addressed to help make the program successful from a traffic management perspective.

Design-Induced Error in Flight Planning

There are many problem-solving tasks that are too complex to fully automate given the current state of technology. Nevertheless, significant improvements in overall system performance could result from the introduction of well-designed computer aids. A major concern in the introduction of such tools to support problem-solving, though, is the potential to introduce new errors due to the interaction of the person with these computer support tools. We have been studying the development of cognitive tools for one such problem-solving task, enroute flight path planning for commercial airlines. Our goal has been two-fold. First, we have been developing specific system designs to help with this important practical problem. Second, we have been using this context to explore general design concepts to guide in the development of cooperative problem-solving systems. These design concepts are described below, along with a discussion of two empirical studies.

Detection and Quantification of Inefficiencies in the National Airspace System

Previous research has indicated that a significant weakness in the functioning of the National Airspace System (NAS) is a lack of adequate feedback to operators such as airline dispatchers and air traflic managers regarding the impacts of their decisions (Billings, 1997; Carlson, et al., 1996; Kerns, et al., 1999; Smith, et al., 1997; Wickens, et al., 1997). In particular, although dispatchers get anecdotal evidence about the air traffic problems that their flights encounter, such as cornerpost swaps and airborne holding, they do not get routine objective data about the frequency and impact of such air traffic mmatives on the llights that they plan. Similarly, air traffic managers make decisions about traffic flows during events like severe weather, but they do not receive any systematic feedback about how successful these plans were or about their costs to the airlines. This inadequacy is in part a hold-over from a system design that decomposed overall system performance into a set of somewhat independent subtasks, so that each person (such as a traffic manager 01 a dispatcher) could do his or her job adequately without too much knowledge or feedback about the performance of other parts of the system. It is also in part due to the fact that different organizations have historically collected different types of data, without any integration of these data sets. As the system has become more integrated, and as the airlines have been given greater flexibility under FAA rmt~atives such as the National Route Program, this lack of data integration and lack of feedback has become a much more important problem. In response to this need, a software system has been developed that integrales FAA data about planned and actual roulings with airline data about planned and actual costs (fuel consumptions and various time metrics such as departure time and time airborne). This soflware system, which is currently being Beta-tested by the Air Traffic Control System Command Center and by 4 airlines, provides post-operations analyses to air traffic managers and dispatchers about routine inefficiencies due to Ilight amcndmcnts. (For example, during one mouth, flights from Chicago to Atlanta departing I 115 Zulu for a particular airline encountered airborne holding 43% of the time, resulting in the consumption of 27% more fuel while airborne and 34% more time.) In addition to such quantitative data, the system provides matching map displays that show planned vs. actual routings. Finally, the software contains data mining tools that can look at the entire NAS for some lime period and help answer questions like: I. What flights routinely experience airborne holding the most and what arc the costs associated with such holding? 2. How often are low altitude departure routes used? How much more often could they be used in situations where there are significant departure delays?