Introducing Structural Considerations into Complexity Metrics

Histon, Jonathan; Hansman, R. John; Aigoin, Guillaume; Delahaye, Daniel; Puechmorel, Stéphane

doi:10.2514/atcq.10.2.115

Cited by 61 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Hence, no mathematical models can be produced for this specification. The literature in this field is mostly related to the analysis of the factors which affect the com-plexity of the controller's task, and on their impact on the controller's workload (Hinston et al, 2002;Manning et al, 2002).…”

Section: Capacity Specificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single European Sky and Single European Railway Area: A system level analysis of air and rail transportation

Pellegrini

Rodríguez

2013

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice

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Air and rail transportation systems are characterized by important common features: they serve a significant share of passenger traffic in Europe; their functioning relies on the cooperation of many stakeholders operating a fixed timetable, often with competing objectives; and they have been characterized by quite a fragmented development following national borders. For these systems, the European Commission envisages a common future in terms of an increase of efficiency and elimination of national borders. In this paper, we analyze the two systems in the perspective of their common development and we underline the main existing differences linked to the management of the infrastructure. These differences concern the processes implemented for specifying and allocating capacity, both in strategic planning and in real-time intervention. Our analysis suggests that the air transportation system is moving in the direction indicated by the European Commission, as well as the rail transportation system for what concerns international train paths (typically high-speed trains). However, a substantial separation still exists between conventional rail transportation systems of different countries.

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Section: Capacity Specificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single European Sky and Single European Railway Area: A system level analysis of air and rail transportation

Pellegrini

Rodríguez

2013

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice

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“…pilot/automation system) is responsible to maintain separation from its surrounding traffic. As a result the centralized complexity (which represents controller workload and proneness to committing separation violation errors) [14][15][16][17][18] is reduced because the controller is relieved from the active separation assurance task for self-separating aircraft. The premise is that the airspace can accommodate more traffic as a result because the number of pilots who are responsible for separation assurance scales with the increased traffic.…”

Section: A Separation Assurancementioning

confidence: 99%

A Distributed Trajectory-Oriented Approach to Managing Traffic Complexity

Idris

Wing

Vivona³

et al. 2007

7th AIAA ATIO Conf, 2nd CEIAT Int'l Conf on Innov and Integr in Aero Sciences,17th LTA Systems Tech Conf; Followed by 2nd TEOS

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In order to handle the expected increase in air traffic volume, the next generation air transportation system is moving towards a distributed control architecture, in which ground-based service providers such as controllers and traffic managers and air-based users such as pilots share responsibility for aircraft trajectory generation and management. While its architecture becomes more distributed, the goal of the Air Traffic Management (ATM) system remains to achieve objectives such as maintaining safety and efficiency. It is, therefore, critical to design appropriate control elements to ensure that aircraft and groundbased actions result in achieving these objectives without unduly restricting user-preferred trajectories. This paper presents a trajectory-oriented approach containing two such elements. One is a trajectory flexibility preservation function, by which aircraft plan their trajectories to preserve flexibility to accommodate unforeseen events. And the other is a trajectory constraint minimization function by which ground-based agents, in collaboration with air-based agents, impose just-enough restrictions on trajectories to achieve ATM objectives, such as separation assurance and flow management. The underlying hypothesis is that preserving trajectory flexibility of each individual aircraft naturally achieves the aggregate objective of avoiding excessive traffic complexity, and that trajectory flexibility is increased by minimizing constraints without jeopardizing the intended ATM objectives. The paper presents conceptually how the two functions operate in a distributed control architecture that includes self separation. The paper illustrates the concept through hypothetical scenarios involving conflict resolution and flow management. It presents a functional analysis of the interaction and information flow between the functions. It also presents an analytical framework for defining metrics and developing methods to preserve trajectory flexibility and minimize its constraints. In this framework flexibility is defined in terms of robustness and adaptability to disturbances and the impact of constraints is illustrated through analysis of a trajectory solution space with limited degrees of freedom and in simple constraint situations involving meeting multiple times of arrival and resolving a conflict.

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“…Structure appears to form the basis for abstractions used in the working mental model in many ATC situations [5]. Structural elements can limit the potential future states of an air traffic situation.…”

Section: Structure As a Basis For Simplifying Abstractionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the model the controller receives surveillance information about the air traffic situation and processes it to produce a set of output commands [5]. The processing of the information is represented in terms of an adapted version of Endsley's model of Situation Awareness [6].…”

Section: Generalized Atc Process Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The planning process produces a distinct cognitive element identified in the model as the controller's "Current Plan" [5] which is an internal representation of the schedule of events and commands to be implemented as well as the resulting aircraft trajectories that will ensure that the air traffic situation evolves in an efficient and conflict-free manner.…”

Section: Figure 1 Generalized Atc Process Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Structural considerations and cognitive complexity in air traffic control

Histon¹,

Hansman²,

Gottlieb³

et al.

Proceedings. The 21st Digital Avionics Systems Conference

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The ability of air traffic controllers to deal with complex situations is a limiting factor in airspace capacity. The underlying airspace structure and other procedural elements are thought to be important factors in reducing a controller's Cognitive Complexity through the use of structure based abstractions. Because Cognitive Complexity cannot be directly observed it must be investigated indirectly. This paper discusses and presents examples of how directly observable states and controllers subjective responses can be used to indirectly probe and gain insight into how structure based abstractions are used to manage Cognitive Complexity.

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Introducing Structural Considerations into Complexity Metrics

Cited by 61 publications

References 2 publications

Single European Sky and Single European Railway Area: A system level analysis of air and rail transportation

Single European Sky and Single European Railway Area: A system level analysis of air and rail transportation

A Distributed Trajectory-Oriented Approach to Managing Traffic Complexity

Structural considerations and cognitive complexity in air traffic control

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