Securing future ATM-concepts' safety by measuring situation awareness in ATC

doi:10.1016/S1270-9638(02)00011-1

Aerospace Science and Technology

Volume 7, Issue 6, September 2003, Pages 417-427

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1270-9638(02)00011-1 Get rights and content

Abstract

A radical change in air traffic management (ATM) is required. New concepts implemented with a view to increasing capacity and efficiency should at least be safety-neutral. Because of the enormous impact of the introduction of new air traffic management systems, their basic concepts have to be evaluated prospectively. With the increasing automation during the nineties, the concept of situation awareness (SA) became accepted as a potential indicator for safety. Among the considerable number of methods that have been developed to measure SA, no method has been validated or applied to evaluate future ATM-concepts like the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT). The approach of SAGAT is based on the assumption that the set of task environments' elements that are relevant for SA is independent of the dynamics within the task environment. Empirical evidence was found that this assumption can not be held in the ATC-domain. A new method to measure SA in ATC, called SALSA, has been developed. This measure takes into account that air traffic controllers use an event based mental representation of the air traffic. The SALSA and the SAGAT SA-measure have been compared in an evaluation study of a new ATM-concept. Results indicate that the method SALSA is feasible and more suitable than SAGAT to evaluate prospectively future ATM-concepts with regards to their impact on safety.

Zusammenfassung

Ein radikaler Wandel im Luftverkehrsmanagement (ATM) ist notwendig. Neue Konzepte, mit dem Ziel der Kapazitäts- und Effizienzsteigerung, sollten mindestens die Sicherheit der heutige Systeme gewährleisten. Aufgrund der enormen Auswirkungen der Einführung von neuen Luftverkehrsmanagementsystemen müssen ihre zugrundeliegenden Konzepte prospektiv evaluiert werden. Mit zunehmender Automatisierung während der neunziger Jahre wurde das Konzept von Situation Awareness als ein potentieller Indikator für Sicherheit akzeptiert. Aus der beträchtlichen Anzahl von Methoden, die zur Messung von Situation Awareness entwickelt wurden, wurde keine Methode so validiert oder angewendet um zukünftige Luftverkehrsmanagementkonzepte zu evaluieren, wie die Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT). Das Vorgehen von SAGAT basiert auf der Annahme, dass die Menge der Elemente der Aufgabenumgebung, die für Situation Awareness relevant sind, unabhängig von der Dynamik der Aufgabenumgebung ist. Empirische Belege wurden gefunden, dass diese Annahme nicht in der Flugsicherungsdomäne getroffen werden kann. Um Situation Awareness in der Flugsicherungsdomäne zu erheben wurde eine neue Methode, SALSA genannt, entwickelt. Diese Methode berücksichtigt, dass Fluglotsen eine ereignisgesteuerte mentale Repräsentation des Flugverkehrs verwenden. Das in SALSA und das in SAGAT angewendete Situation Awareness Maß wurde in einer Evaluationsstudie eines neuen Luftverkehrsmanagementkonzeptes miteinander verglichen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Methode SALSA praktikabel durchführbar ist und gegenüber SAGAT geeigneter ist, um zukünftige Luftverkehrsmanagementkonzepte auf ihre Wirkung hinsichtlich der Sicherheit zu evaluieren.

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Securing future ATM-concepts' safety by measuring situation awareness in ATCGewährleistung der Sicherheit von zukünftigen Luftverkehrsmanagementkonzepten durch Messung von Situation Awareness in der Flugsicherung

Abstract

Zusammenfassung

Aerospace Science and Technology

Ironies of automation

Analysis of mental processes involved in air traffic control

Ergonomics

Situation awareness as a predictor of performance for en route air traffic controllers

Air Traffic Control Quarterly

Situation awareness measurement in test and evaluation

Monitoring versus man-in-the-loop-detection of aircraft control failures

A model of air traffic controllers' conflict detection and conflict resolution

Aerospace Science and Technology

An information-processing interpretation of air traffic control stress

Human Factors