Human-in-the-loop evaluation of an augmented reality based interface for the airport control tower

Abstract

authors removed for double blind review policy It is widely recognized that most industrial sectors will benefit from the use of augmented reality technologies in the near future. The aviation sector is one of the most promising fields for the implementation of augmented reality and synthetic vision based solutions, due to the operational challenges that it poses. In this context, an innovative airport control tower concept based on the use of modern augmented reality technologies has been developed and validated by means of human-in-the-loop experiments in a simulated environment. An optical-based Augmented Reality interface underpins the proposed concept that consists in providing Air Traffic Control Operators in the airport control tower with complete head-up information, as opposed to the current mix of information retrieval through both head-up real view and head-down interfaces. This paper describes the experimental setup of the validation platform, the test execution and analyzes the obtained results, showing that the proposed application leads to improved human performance, safety and capacity. Specific measurement of the time spent by the operator working in either head-up or head-down position, show that the proposal has a clear effect in stimulating the Air Traffic Control Operator to work in a head-up position more than in a head-down position, with positive effects on his/her situational awareness and perceived workload, especially when dealing with low visibility conditions operational scenarios.

Virtual/augmented reality-based human–machine interface and interaction modes in airport control towers

“…As expected, enabling the controllers to have a head-up view of the traffic even in bad visibility conditions proved to be beneficial for the ATCOs’ human performance while maintaining safety and increasing airport resiliency in low visibility 18 . Moreover, the results obtained by the RETINA consortium, coordinated by the University of Bologna, served as a basis for the SESAR JU Digital Technologies for Tower (PJ05-W2 DTT) project 19 , 20 .…”

User-Centered Requirements for Augmented Reality as a Cognitive Assistant for Safety-Critical Services

“…This leads to limited safety in vessel traffic, extreme exhaustion due to the constant change of view and context, and several health issues. These side effects of the constant shift of perspective can also be observed in other safety-critical services, such as air traffic control in an airport control tower (Bagassi et al 2020). In addition to simultaneous navigation of the vessel and measurement of data, the skipper needs to interact with the measurement engineer, who is accountable for controlling the quality of the measured data.…”

“…For example, the user requirements for an AR-based refinery training tool were determined for an oil refinery to develop usable and safe AR applications (Tra ¨skba ¨ack and Haller 2004). Another example is the application of AR in an innovative airport control power, where the aim was to provide the air traffic control operators in the airport control tower with complete head-up information (Balci and Rosenkranz 2014;Bagassi et al 2020). All safety-critical services require situational awareness of involved actors.…”

Maturity-based taxonomy of extended reality technologies in aircraft lifecycle

“…This is the only optical-based XR application that already reached complete maturity in the aeronautical sector. More recently, different research projects explored a similar operational concept applied to airport control towers [12][13] reaching the development phase. The projects demonstrated how XR technologies in control towers are beneficial for the situational awareness of the controllers especially when the aerodrome is affected by low visibility conditions.…”