Isabelle Grimaud

DELEGATION OF CROSSING OPERATIONS TO THE FLIGHT CREW FIRST QUANTITATIVE RESULTS

In the scope of assessing the impact of the delegation of sequencing operations to the flight crew, an experiment with twelve controllers from different European countries has been carried out. The airspace simulated was a part of the Paris terminal area, and consisted of two measured sectors with arrival flights from cruise level to initial approach fix. The feeling from controllers is positive: the delegation is perceived as satisfying, and should enable a workload reduction. The acceptance is also revealed by the significant rate of use. The delegation allows for a significant reduction in the number of instructions given, specifically those given near the exit point. This suggests a positive impact on controller activity. Typically, while building sequences still remain to the controllers, maintaining sequences were delegated to flight crews. It was observed however that the sector configuration has an impact on the use of delegation. In terms of efficiency, time, distance and fuel consumption are also reduced, and it appears also that trajectories become more stable. For one of the two sessions, workload issues were investigated through selfassessment and physiological measurements. However, due to problems encountered, they did not provide a clear view. In terms of safety, no significant trend emerges although errors were observed.

Assessing the Impact of Spacing Tolerance on Flight Crew Activity

New allocation of spacing tasks between controller and flight crew is envisaged as one possible option to improve air traffic management. This allocation of spacing tasks to flight crew (denoted airborne spacing) is expected to increase controller availability and to improve safety, which in turn could enable better efficiency and/or, depending on airspace constraints, more capacity. In addition, it is expected that flight crew would gain in awareness and anticipation by taking an active part in the management of his situation. To assess benefits and limits of this new task allocation, controller-in-the-loop and pilot-in-the-loop experiments are conducted. Beyond assessing interface usability and overall feasibility, the latest pilot-in-the-loop experiment aimed at analysing the impact of various tolerance margins on flight crew activity. Flight crews were tasked to perform a spacing task in a manual (“selected”) mode, from cruise to initial approach. Flight crew feedback were generally positive. Despite a new task in the cockpit which requires appropriate assistance to contain workload, pilots highlighted the positive aspects of getting in the loop, understanding their situation (through goal-oriented instructions), and gaining anticipation. If tolerances of 1Nm and 0.5Nm seem feasible to maintain under nominal conditions, the 0.25Nm tolerance seems more difficult and requires more effort and attention.

Delegation of spacing tasks from controllers to flight crew: Impact on controller monitoring tasks

In the present paper, we describe how we investigated jointly the impact of a new procedure for air traffic controllers on active control (i.e. communication and instructions) and on monitoring. In the first section, we will introduce the rationale for looking at monitoring, and more specifically why we decided to use eye tracker devices. In the second section, we will present the method and the experimental set up. In the results section, the impact of delegation to flight crews on the monitoring (modification of fixation areas, scanning patterns, objects of fixation) will be analysed and related to the overall controller activity. Even though the reduced monitoring can be seen as a benefit in terms of workload, the issue of safety will be discussed, in investigating if modified monitoring is still effective.

LIMITED DELEGATION WITH ARRIVAL STREAMS: MORE INSIGHT ON ITS IMPACT ON CONTROLLER ACTIVITY

In the scope of assessing the impact of the delegation of sequencing operations to the flight deck, a new controller-in-the-loop experiment was conducted in 2001. The objectives were to extend the scope of previous experiments, and in particular provide more insight on the impact of delegation on monitoring tasks. Results are consistent with previous ones. The feeling from controllers is positive: the delegation is perceived as satisfying, and should enable a workload reduction. The acceptance is also revealed by the significant rate of use. The delegation allows for a significant reduction in the number and geographical location of instructions and eye fixations. Delegation seems to enable controllers to focus on the area where sequences need to be built. Contextual analysis of monitoring is still required to confirm that reduced monitoring is not detrimental to safety.

SPACING INSTRUCTIONS IN APPROACH: ASSESSING USABILITY FROM THE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER PERSPECTIVE

New allocation of spacing tasks between controller and flight crew is envisaged as one possible option to improve air traffic management. This allocation of spacing tasks to flight crew (denoted airborne spacing) is expected to increase controller availability and to improve safety, which in turn could enable better efficiency and/or, depending on airspace constraints, more capacity. In addition, it is expected that flight crew would gain in awareness and anticipation by taking an active part in the management of his situation. Controller-in-the-loop simulations were performed to assess feasibility and possible benefits of the airborne spacing in extended terminal areas (i.e. from cruise to initial approach). Recently, a simulation was carried out to assess usability, from a controller perspective, of airborne spacing in TMA (i.e. from initial to final approach). This paper presents first an analysis of the specificity of TMA compared to E-TMA, and explains

Limited delegation of separation assurance to the flight crew

Abstract Following the analogy of visual clearances, the limited delegation of separation assurance to the flight crew is proposed to increase controller availability and flight crew situational awareness. A simulation involving controllers has been carried out to evaluate the potential benefits of the concept in enroute airspace and terminal area. This paper outlines the concept and presents the main results for the terminal area.

Initial Evaluation of Limited Delegation of Separation Assurance to the Cockpit

This paper presents the initial evaluation of the EACAC study, which is investigating delegation by the controller to the pilot of some tasks related to separation assurance. The concept is applied in managed airspace for two classes of application: crossing and passing in en-route, and sequencing in Terminal Manoeuvring Area. The concept relies on two key points discussed in the paper: “limited delegation” and “flexible use of delegation”. The initial evaluation using a simplified ATC environment has been set up to get “feedback” from both controllers and pilots, and to assess the operational feasibility and potential interest of the concept. The overall feeling about the method is “promising” with a “great potential”, and could reduce workload. The notion of “flexible use of delegation” would enable the gradual growth of confidence and would also provide flexibility to use the method under different conditions (traffic, airspace, practice level). It has been highlighted and observed however that the conditions of applicability of the method must be respected, otherwise it could worsen the situations, resulting in an increase of workload and communication. The next step of the study will therefore be a “quantitative” experiment with the objective of evaluating expected gains of the method.

USER-CENTERED DESIGN OF COCKPIT INTERFACES INVOLVING PILOTS IN SEQUENCING OPERATIONS

The work presented is the paper is part of a project whose objective is to investigate the limited delegation of separation tasks to the flight deck. Whereas delegation is initially aiming at increasing controllers availability, it is essential to assess potential impact on the flight deck. An holistic approach has been selected: simulations integrating both ground and air components are conducted in order to assess acceptance and potential benefits. In this context, to support flight crews in the separation tasks, dedicated interfaces were designed and implemented on a cockpit simulator. The objective of the user-centred design approach illustrated here is to provide the flight crew with appropriate information support, enabling them to efficiently and safely perform separation tasks. Whereas a large part of the elicited requirements were expected, some surprising requests emerged along the process. The pilots’ evaluation confirmed the need for a visual display of the required separation and for a system advisory of the most appropriate manoeuvre. However, the display of additional symbols had not been anticipated. Issues listed in this paper which served as design constraints, can be used as guidelines to assess the applicability of the proposed delegation of tasks.

Impact of delegation of spacing tasks on safety issues [ATC]

Todays challenge in the domain of air traffic control is to maintain if not improved the level of safety considering the foreseen increase of traffic. Among the different options investigated, a new task allocation between air and ground to manage aircraft spacing is seen as part of a possible solution. Beyond assessing the impact of this new task allocation (denoted delegation) on controller and flight crew activities, it is essential to understand how the overall level of safety is impacted. In this paper, we suggest that safety assessment requires a dual approach, measuring not only the negative dimension of safety (error free) but also the positive one (error tolerant). In the first section, we introduce current safety approaches and describe our safety related hypothesis. In the second section, we describe our experimental method, in terms of experimental plan and set-up. After the discussion on the method in the third section, remaining questions and foreseen follow-up are listed in the conclusion.

Investigating Delegation of Spacing Tasks from Air Traffic Controllers to Pilots. Impact on Controller Activity

Controller-in-the-loop experiments were conducted in order to assess the impact on air traffic controller activity of the delegation of spacing task to the flight deck. Three experiments involving a total of 18 European controllers during 7 weeks took place over the past two years. In addition to standard data analysis, a geographical-based analysis was introduced. It consisted in analysing the distribution of manoeuvring instructions and eye fixations as a function of their distance to the sector exit. This analysis confirmed assumptions that delegation leads to anticipate the building of the sequences, and to relieve the controller of maintaining these sequences. Although these initial results suggest a positive impact on controller activity, they still need to be complemented, typically with contextual analysis of monitoring through microscopic analysis of eye fixations.