Data-Linked Pilot Reply Time on Controller Workload and Communication in a Simulated Terminal Option

Details

• Creators:
  Prinzo, O. V.
• Corporate Creators:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Air traffic controllers
  • Air traffic control
  • Workload
  • Reaction time
  • Terminal operations
  • Communication and control
  • Communication
  • Air traffic control systems
  • Air traffic controllers
  • Aviation safety
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• Publication/ Report Number:
  DOT/FAA/AM-01/8
• Resource Type:
  Research Paper
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. Federal Aviation Administration. Office of Aviation Medicine
• Abstract:
  This report describes an analysis of air traffic control communication and workload in a simulated terminal radar approach ; control environment. The objective of this study was to investigate how pilot-to-controller data-link acknowledgment time ; might affect controller-perceived workload and operational communication. Eight controllers provided air traffic services to ; simulated arrival aircraft during a moderate-traffic density simulation in which voice radio and data link communications ; were available. The effect of a delay in downlinked pilot acknowledgment time to controller uplinked messages was the ; primary variable of interest. Each controller completed the same scenario twice, with the order of presentation ; counterbalanced. That is, for the first simulation, half the controllers received immediate responses to their data link ; messages while the other half received pilot acknowledgment time delayed by about 11 seconds. The primary finding was a ; general, albeit not statistically significant, tendency among controllers towards an increase in subjective workload overall and ; on individual dimensions of the NASA Task Load Index when the simulation environment supported mixed, rather than ; immediate pilot responses. The analysis performed on communication measures revealed that controller workload was ; affected by the communications capability onboard the aircraft but not ghost pilot response type (immediate, delayed). ; Transmissions to data link-equipped aircraft took longer to complete and contained longer pauses than transmissions to ; non-data linked aircraft. The mode of communications selected by controllers also influenced workload but ghost pilot ; response type did not. When controllers used data link, their transmissions took nearly 2 seconds longer to complete than ; comparable messages sent by voice. When compared with voice radio messages, controllers took longer to formulate and ; transmit messages over a data link-communications system, but their messages were more accurate and contained fewer ; message elements. This finding was replicated when messages with courtesies, salutations, and those involved in the initial ; contact services were removed. Often, the data-link transmissions that contained longer pauses resulted from deliberate ; actions on the part of the controllers. Longer latencies did not result in a loss of efficiency but reflected innovations on the ; part of the controllers to optimize performance. For example, by placing data-link messages in a pending status, controllers ; would communicate with a non-data-link-equipped aircraft. When the data link-equipped aircraft arrived at a transitionpoint ; along their filed flight plan (generally approaching a hand-off point or transition altitude or fix), controllers uplinked ; their already composed messages to those aircraft.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  Task AM-B-98-HRR-516
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/5162/dot_5162_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 280.44 KB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection ; FAA Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b03bb27490d6f9556a8aa1a6544625c4d42c7f0bc91de4ab65ab268450991f8bc2bead9a6c8ffe3499d1c1124cc9f8698db440eee7456572a3c66be086945bc4