Effects of Data Communications Failure on Air Traffic Controller Sector Management Effectiveness, Situation Awareness, and Workload

摘要

Data communications (Data Comm) is a tool needed to implement future concepts of air traffic management envisioned by NextGen. A combination of voice and pilot-controller data communications will allow the National Airspace System to handle 2-3X current day traffic by 2025. The performance, situation awareness, and workload of seven air traffic controllers was analyzed in a medium fidelity, human-in-the-loop simulation where a discrete Data Comm failure occurred after several trials with completely reliable Data Comm tools. We found that the Data Comm failure resulted in increased controller workload and decreased sector efficiency performance. However, the controllers were able to maintain safety in their sectors despite the Data Comm failure.