Air traffic capacity is mainly bound by air traffic controller workload. In order to effectively find solutions for this problem, off-line pre-experimental workload assessment methods are desirable. In order to better understand the workload associated with air traffic control, previous research introduced the static Solution Space as a possible workload metric. The Solution Space Diagram is a mapping of intruding aircraft trajectories to the velocity/heading plane in the form of Conflict Zones and safe areas. Choosing a velocity vector in either one will provide an unsafe or a safe solution, respectively. In this paper an improved, dynamic Solution Space will be tested for correlations with air traffic controller workload, measured experimentally. A two dimensional experiment has been conducted, where subjects were required to line up all aircraft in a sector towards a certain waypoint, while continuously providing subjective workload ratings. High correlations were found between several Solution Space parameters and the subjective workload. Even though a conventional workload metric shows also to be highly correlated to the measured workload, the Solution Space could be the scenario independent workload metric that is currently missing in air traffic controller workload determination.

Air traffic controller workload is considered to be a limiting factor to air traffic growth. Previous research introduced the static solution space approach to assess the difficulty of aircraft merging tasks. In this paper the dynamic, tangent-based solution space will be introduced that includes the future trajectory intent of all aircraft. Metrics derived from the solution space, together with common metrics, were tested for correlations with controller workload. An experiment has been conducted where subjects were required to line up all aircraft in a sector towards a certain waypoint, while periodically rating their workload. High correlations were found between several solution space related metrics and subjective workload ratings. In contrast to the number of aircraft metric, which had the highest correlation with workload, the dynamic solution space may allow for controller workload prediction in realtime.

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