Abstract

International audience; This paper describes a study to develop an intelligent air traffic ground control operation system that is able to integrate initiatives from both controllers andautonomous vehicles. We use a multi-agent approach to optimize dynamically a routing and scheduling task while taking into account real-time human suggestions. Weexpect that such mixed-initiative systems combined with autonomous vehicles will permit reduction of congestion and fuel consumption in large airports.

Abstract

International audience; The Air Traffic Control (ATC) environment is complex and safety-critical; operators work in dynamic situations and must make high-risk decisions under stress and temporal pressure. Whilst exchanging information with the aircrafts under their responsibility via radio, operators must also be alert to the occurrence of auditory alarms, such as the collision avoidance alert or danger area infringement warning. In addition, auditory warnings are increasingly integrated within ATC workstations. The high perceptual load involved in ATC means that controllers’ attention must be shared between several subtasks, with few or no remaining attentional capacity for processing information that is not related directly to the focal task. In this kind of situation, the likelihood of a controller failing to become aware of an auditory alarm, i.e. inattentional deafness, is high. Characterizing physiological symptoms associated with inattentional deafness would enable online detection of the phenomenon in safety-critical situations (nuclear power station supervision, piloting or air traffic control). We designed an ecological ATC thanks to the simulation environment called the “LABY” microworld. Twenty participants were required to guide one (low cognitive load) or two planes (high cognitive load) around a given route, while dealing with visual notifications relating to peripheral aircrafts. During the task, participants were played either standard tones which they were told to ignore, or deviant tones (“the alarm”, probability = 0.20) which they were told to report (20 alarms per scenario). We hypothesized that the detection rate of auditory alarms will decrease with cognitive workload. In order to explore this possibility, Behavioral results showed that 28.8% of alarms were not reported when guiding one plane, and up to 46.2% when guiding two planes (high load). The cognitive load increase led to a reduced visual notification detection rate, but the performance to guiding the central aircrafts was maintained, as well as the reaction times to report auditory alarms when perceived. This high rate of inattentional deafness is essential to further physiological studies on alarm omission in aeronautics, such as ERP or eye movement analysis. Potential applications are related to the integrative online detection and prevention of alarm omission, and the online measurement of workload in ecological situation.

Abstract

International audience; Evaluating future technology concepts for air traffic control ground operations requires exploration of work scenarios of differing complexities, i.e. scenarios that create more or less taskload for air traffic controllers. While the link between traffic load and workload has been well-characterized in the literature and is often the only complexity variable applied to validation studies, there are other operational events that can augment controller workload. Through a series of interviews and on-site observations of professional and student air traffic controllers, we defined seven general operational events that can be applied to all airport ground operations. We discuss the development of two scenarios of different workloads (average and hard) and their validation with air traffic controllers.

Abstract

International audience; Project Modern Taxiing (MoTa) studies the impact of future taxiing technologies such as Datalink and autonomous taxiing tugs on airport taxiing operations and air traffic controller workload. Seven air traffic controllers were asked to manage ground traffic in two scenarios that imposed medium and high levels of workload with three different degrees of automated technology assistance: paper strips; Datalink and path suggestion; Datalink, path suggestion, and tugs. Initial results indicate that participants were able to manage more traffic when using either just the interface or interface and tugs, but the inclusion of tugs also resulted in an increase in self-reported workload. Participants were divided on technology acceptance with no one rejecting completely the new technology.

Abstract

International audience; The acoustic environment is critical in Air Traffic Control (ATC), as operators exchange information with planes and must also be aware of the occurrence of auditory alarms. In such situations, observing inattentional deafness is likely. In this study, we aimed to identify the physiological indicators of inattentional deafness through the analysis of the P300 evoked potential, known to be an indicator of attention allocation, an important step to a stimulus reaching consciousness. Based on the assumption that the high mental load generated by an ATC task may reduce the alarm detection rate, we wished to test whether this effect would be reflected in the alarm-evoked P300 amplitude. Participants had to perform simulated ATC tasks within the LABY microworld while electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded. Simultaneously to the LABY tasks, participants were asked to respond to target tones (the “alarm”) and to ignore standard tones. Behavioral results showed that 4.6% of alarms were not reported. For these alarm detection failures, the EEG analysis showed a diminution of the P300 amplitude in comparison to a control condition in which participants only focused on the tones. These results suggest that the P300 amplitude seems to be a valid physiological indicator of vulnerability to inattentional deafness in complex environments. Relevant applications include the prevention of alarm omission and the assessment of warning designs.