Human-Centred Innovation : Developing 3 Din-2 D Displays for ATC

2016

As a matter of fact, airports are considered as the bottleneck to increasing the capacity of the overall Air Traffic Management (ATM) system. While augmenting throughput in high performing airport operations, attention has rightly been placed on doing it in a safe manner. Many of the advances in airport operational safety come in the form of visualization tools for tower controllers. The increasing interest in Synthetic Vision (SV) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies has led various analysts to positively esteem the adoption of new tools enabling both pilots and controllers to seamlessly operate under Visual Meteorological Conditions and Instrument Meteorological Conditions. This paper presents the motivations, the objectives, the proposed methodology and the expected impacts of the RETINA (Resilient Synthetic Vision for Advanced Control Tower Air Navigation Service Provision) project that has recently been granted by the SESAR (Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Researc...

24th International Symposium on Aviation Psychology, 2021

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) holds a vital role in the United States, employing over 14,000 Air Traffic Control/Management (ATC/ATM) specialists responsible for managing roughly 43,000 flights each day. ATC education "wash-out" rates have shown that there is a disconnect between the training process and the implementation of cognitively demanding, safety-critical ATC duties. The purpose of this research was to investigate if, how, and where immersive technologies (i.e., augmented, virtual, and mixed reality) could be helpful within the ATC/ATM educational domain. To accomplish the overall research goal, subject matter expert (SME) interviews were conducted and a potential educational tool was developed and tested in two distinct research phases. Eighteen (N = 18) subjects volunteered to participate throughout both phases, and the tool was rated to be above average meaning the tool is usable in its current form; however, further development is suggested and expected.

This paper presents a qualitative evaluation of three combined 2D/3D displays for air traffic control. Two main objectives characterized the assessment exercise. First, to collect feed-back from the controllers on the features and functionalities provided by the displays. The different visual displays were expected to support a number of well defined ATC tasks as well as provide a representation compatible with typical ATC-related visuo-spatial requirements. Second we expected that controllers’ feedback would throw light on the relationship between the displays as tools, and the more general operational problems of management of air traffic. It was hypothesized in fact that the discussion around the tools could have worked as a “window” on controllers practices, letting emerge those aspects of the work, that although not directly related to the tool will be affected by the introduction of the tool itself.

2000

Graphical user interfaces have limitations in terms of the information bandwidth they provide between users and systems. This can impede the redesign of systems previously based on more physical media: information may be less appropriately displayed, and shared cognition between users can be reduced. However, in parallel with research on new user interaction techniques, a more systematic use of visual design techniques can relieve those limitations. This article explores some of those techniques and how they can be applied, through a design experiment. Virtuosi and DigiStrips are two user interface prototypes developed within a research program on air traffic control workstations, which make use of touch screens and served as a basis for research on the use of graphical design techniques in user interfaces. This paper describes the lessons learnt in that experience and argues that techniques such as animation, font design, careful use of graphical design techniques can augment the possibilities of user interface design and improve the usability of systems. We finally analyse the possible enhancement brought in the communication between system and users as well as between the users.

2000

A suite of cockpit navigation displays for low-visibility airport surface operations has been designed by researchers at NASA Ames Research Center following a human-centered process. This paper reports on the final research effort in this process that examined the procedural integration of these technologies into the flight deck. Using NASA Ames' high-fidelity Advanced Concepts Flight Simulator, eighteen airline crews completed fourteen low-visibility (RVR 1000') land-andtaxi scenarios that included both nominal (i.e., hold short of intersections, route amendments) and off-nominal taxi scenarios designed to assess how pilots integrate these technologies into their procedures and operations. Recommendations for integrating datalink and cockpit displays into current and future surface operations are provided.

2005

Air traffic control (ATC) is a human-dependent safety critical activity therefore the information that is made available to the human decision-maker -the controller -is of extreme importance. In ATC, the design of humanmachine interfaces requires particular attention, especially when a new technology is considered. To support the investigation on the applicability of the new 3D Virtual Reality technology for air traffic control, our strategy has been to establish parallel, mutually beneficial technologydriven design and human-centred evaluation approaches. The technology-driven investigation aims at exploring all features that can be offered by 3D stereoscopic visualisation and multimodal interactions technologies while the ultimate goal of the human-centred investigation is to empirically uncover the main implications derived from the adoption of 3D stereoscopic interface for ATC, with particular attention to controllers' acceptability. This paper describes the implementation, from our technology-driven design approach, of a 3D stereoscopic system for real time visualisation and manipulation of data in air traffic control. We will discuss the modelling and 3D visualisation of specific ATC objects such as aircraft trajectories, convective weather, conflicts, etc. and the multi-modal interaction schemes associated to the controller working environment. Results of our usercentred, empirical analysis of the applicability of 3D stereoscopic technology for ATC are being published elsewhere, and are not discussed herein.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2016

The SESAR (Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research) Joint Undertaking has recently granted the Resilient Synthetic Vision for Advanced Control Tower Air Navigation Service Provision project within the framework of the H2020 research on High Performing Airport Operations. Hereafter, we describe the project motivations, the objectives, the proposed methodology and the expected impacts, i.e. the consequences of using virtual/augmented reality technologies in the control tower.

2020

The human-centred design of augmented visualisation aids can have significant effect on human performance and cognitive processes by increasing an operator’s capability to manage complex checklists. This study investigated the use of an Augmented Reality (AR) device as a cockpit integration tool and the possible new challenges relating to Human-Computer interactions it induces. Seventeen aviation professionals (pilots, engineers, and training pilots) aged from 23 to 53 (M=29.82, SD=8.93) participated in this experiment. Their flight experience ranged from zero flight hours to 3000 flight hours (M=605.00, SD=1051.04). Two types of interaction by gesture and voice control, have been compared with traditional paper checklists. The results show that gesture control AR gives rise to unnecessary complexity and tends to be cumbersome to use. On the other hand, voice control AR checklists could constitute an improvement in terms of usability of checklists completion in flight operations. Pa...

2011

This paper focuses on the next challenges that, in the near future, ergonomics has to cope with in the aviation domain. After a short excursus, showing the accidents dynamics along the years and pointing out the relative causes, the paper illustrates the difference between two different conception of automation: a generic human (user) friendly versus a specific pilot-friendly concept. This is useful to evaluate the impact on operational life of the introduction of new technologies onboard in the next generation of airplanes. Some case-studies are shown to give an example of the hidden threats, invisible at the design stage, disseminated through the entire innovation process.

22nd Digital Avionics Systems Conference Proceedings (Cat No 03CH37449) DASC-03, 2003