Information Requirements for Pilots to Execute 4-D Trajectories on the Airport Surface

Abstract

Trajectory-based operations constitute a key mechanism considered by the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) of the U.S. for managing traffic in high-density or highly complex airspace in the Next-Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). With this concept applied to surface operations at major airports, current research has been exploring the use of surface 4-dimensional (4D) trajectories, which use required times of arrival (RTAs) at selected locations along the taxi route. The research has explored the use of collaborative automation systems in the control tower and on the flight deck to plan and execute these 4D trajectories to achieve safe and efficient surface operations, and prototype experimental systems for these automation systems have been developed. This paper reports on a study with human-in-the-loop experiments performed using prototype designs of the flight-deck automation system display to achieve two primary objectives: identify information requirements for the pilot to execute 4D trajectories, and investigate usability of the flight-deck display. More specifically, the findings help to identify the information requirements for the pilots, to discover issues related to the general interface design and properties of the display, and to recommend specific improvements that could be made to the design of the display and how it communicates information to the user.

NextGen surface trajectory-based operations: Contingency-hold clearances

“…• Contingency Hold Concept was first pro posed by Cheng et al (Cheng, Sweriduk, Yeh, Andre, & Foyle, 2008;Cheng, Andre, & Foyle, 2009) • Method for managing traffic at intersections and active runway crossings to maintain safe aircraft se paration in the Next Gen ST80 environment.…”

Safely conducting airport surface trajectory-based operations

“…Surface movement management tools will utilize improved surveillance, environmental and operational conditions, and other information to sequence aircraft for departure, issue conflict-free time-based taxi routes, monitor taxi conformance, and revise taxi plans as necessary [2,3]. The taxi routes are intended to be transmitted through data communications protocols and displayed to the flight crew on a flight deck surface movement display [4][5][6][7][8].…”