Multiple remote tower for Single European Sky: The evolution from initial operational concept to regulatory approved implementation

Abstract

The European Union project, Single European Sky, initiated a reorganization of European airspace and proposed additional measures for air traffic management to achieve the key objectives of improving efficiency and capacity while at the same time enhancing safety. The concept of multiple remote tower operation is that air traffic controllers (ATCOs) can control several airfields from a distant virtual control centre. The control of multiple airfields can be centralised to a virtual centre permitting the more efficient use of ATCO resources. This research was sponsored by the Single European Sky ATM Research Program and the ATM Operations Division of the Irish Aviation Authority. A safety case was developed for migration of multiple remote tower services to live operations. This research conducted 50 large scale demonstration trials of remote tower operations from single tower operations to multiple tower operations for safety assessment by air navigation safety regulators in 2016. A dedicated team of air traffic controllers and technology experts successfully completed the safety assessment of multiple remote tower operations in real time. The air movement control and surface movement control at both Shannon and Cork airports were conducted simultaneously from a virtual remote tower centre at Dublin Airport, Ireland. The implementation of this innovative technology requires a careful balance between costefficiency and the safety of the air traffic control in terms of capacity and human performance. The live trial exercises demonstrated that the air traffic services provided by the remote tower for a single airport and two medium airports by a single ATCO with 'in sequence' and 'simultaneous' aircraft operations was at least as safe as provided by the local towers at Cork and Shannon aerodromes. No safety occurrence was reported nor did any operational safety issue arise during the conduct of the fifty live trial exercises.

Human performance assessment of a single air traffic controller conducting multiple remote tower operations

“…However, how much is too much when it comes to tasks for a single controller? MRTO is safe whilst operations are routine, the evolution of a critical event at one or two airports has the potential to overload the single ATCO, this requires additional study and analysis before MRTO operations can be deployed (Kearney & Li, ). The development of new remote tower technology is designed to reduce ATCO's workload through augmented vision presented on OTW, RDP, and EFS.…”

“…However, inappropriate design of automation can present many disadvantages and create potential system risks leading to accident/incidents, including loss of SA, and placing the human operators outside of the system control loop (Durso, Truitt, Hackworth, Crutchfield, & Manning, ; Endsley, ). Augmented visualization design is to enhance ATCO's SA, using human information‐processing models, ATCO's visual behaviors provide an opportunity to investigate the relationship between ATCOs’ SA and task performance (Kearney & Li, ). The eye scan pattern is one of the most powerful methods for assessing human beings’ cognitive processes (Ahlstrom & Friedman‐Berg, ).…”

“…The development of augmented visualization technology has significantly changed the traditional air traffic management (ATM) system and ATCOs’ task performance. Under continued pressure from economic regulators to improve air navigation service provider (ANSP) cost‐efficiency, the concept of single tower operations evolved to consider the possibility of Multiple Remote Tower Operations (MRTO) by applying video panorama‐based remote tower working positions, which permit less controllers to fulfill the ATM tasks to two or more airports (Kearney & Li, ). The Single European Sky (SES) initiative is expected to increase safety, capacity and reduce costs to meet the growing demand for aircraft operations in Europe (Eurocontrol, ).…”

Connectivity and resilience of remote operations: insights from air traffic management

“…The Remote Tower (RTWR) is a relatively novel concept of operations in ATM, which provides the capacity to manage tower operations remotely based on: (1) a tower equipped with various sensors (cameras especially) at the airport to be controlled; and (2) controllers accessing this information at a remote centre, which might be used to control multiple airports [4]. Remote Towers have been developed, tested and validated over the past 10-15 years.…”

“…They pointed out in 2014 that there had been little research on the topic of ATCO recovery from failure. For a detailed description of the evolution of remote tower operations, we refer to Kearney and Li [4]. They also pointed out that during 50 live trial exercises, there were no safety occurrences, but there is an increased likelihood of the controller missing a transmission by an aircraft or vehicle compared to traditional towers.…”