Situation Awareness Information Requirements Analysis for En Route Air Traffic Control

Abstract

Situation awareness is a fundamental requirement for effective air traffic control forming the basis for controller decision making and performance. To develop a better understanding of the role of situation awareness in air traffic control, an analysis was performed to determine the specific situation awareness requirements for air traffic control. This was conducted as a goal-direct task analysis in which the major goals, subgoals, decisions and associated situation awareness requirements for En Route Air Traffic Control (ATC) were delineated based on elicitation from eight experienced Air Traffic Control Specialists. This effort was supported by available task analyses and video-tapes of simulated air traffic control tasks. A determination of the major situation awareness requirements for En Route ATC was developed from this analysis, providing a foundation for future system development which seeks to enhance controller situation awareness and provides a basis for the development of situation awareness measures for air traffic control.

A review of situation awareness literature relevant to pilot surveillance functions.

“…) with elaborate cognitive models of the machine and the operating environment to control the movement of a vehicle through a medium. The SA construct has also been extended to other domains such as air traffic control (e.g., Endsley & Rodgers, 1994), battlefield management (e.g., Kass, Herschler, &Companion, 1991), medical procedures (e.g., Gaba, Howard, & Small, 1995), and even football (e.g., Walker & Fisk, 1995). These domains share common characteristics; For example: (a) the environment is often dynamic and information rich; (b) the human may sometimes experience high mental workload; (c) extensive training is often required; (d) the problems are often ill-structured; and (e) time is often constrained.…”

Toward Automating Airspace Management

“…Prior SA studies of Air Traffic Control [5,6] indicate the goals of the controller, and relate those goals to the knowledge required to achieve them. In the AutoATS system, there are three broad types of goals: those that help maintain SA, those that respond to conditions in the battlespace by identifying conflicts, and those that manage generating and issuing advisories.…”

“…From earlier analyses of Air Traffic Control [5,6], a controller uses a great deal of static and dynamic knowledge to maintain situational awareness and make decisions. Static knowledge includes background knowledge about particular aircraft (e.g., flight dynamics and weight class), local terrain, military airspace doctrine, and standard operating procedures for a local area.…”

A Review of Situation Awareness Literature Relevant to Pilot Surveillance Functions

“…For example, Endsley and Rodgers (1994) identified the information for which an air traffic controller must have knowledge to obtain SA. As such, they did not include static information like the number of airports in a sector, but they did suggest that a controller must have knowledge of current aircraft positions.…”

“…) with elaborate cognitive models of the machine and the operating environment to control the movement of a vehicle through a medium. The SA construct has also been extended to other domains such as air traffic control (e.g., Endsley & Rodgers, 1994), battlefield management (e.g., Kass, Herschler, & Companion, 1991), medical procedures (e.g., Gaba, Howard, & Small, 1995), and even football (e.g., Walker & Fisk, 1995). These domains share common characteristics; For example: (a) the envi ronment is often dynamic and information rich; (b) the human may sometimes experience high mental workload; (c) extensive training is often required; (d) the problems are often ill-structured; and (e) time is often constrained.…”