Air traffic controller workload is considered to be a limiting factor in the growth of air traffic worldwide. In this paper a new method of assessing controller task demand load will be developed and tested. Based on the hypothesis that operator workload is primarily caused by the difficulty of the task to be conducted, the concept of the solution space is described. For any particular air traffic control problem, the solution space describes the constraints in the environment that limit (and therefore guide) air traffic controller decisions and actions. The difficulty of that particular control problem can then be analyzed by considering the properties of the solution space. The task of merging an aircraft into a stream of other aircraft that fly along a fixed route is considered. An experiment has been conducted in which subjects were instructed to solve several merging problem scenarios of varying difficulty. After completing each scenario, subjects were asked to rate the difficulty of their task. High correlations are found between several solution-space properties and self-reported task difficulty.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.