A new approach to air traffic controller workload measurement and modelling

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to develop an analytical approach for workload measurement based on the task times and the changing task priorities of en route air traffic controllers (EATC). Design/methodology/approach -A model called Total Airspace Workload Measurement Model was developed to measure EATC workload. Turkish airspace was chosen for practical application of the model. A survey was conducted of EATC to calculate the weighting coefficients and times of different tasks defined in the model. The survey results were analyzed with SPSS 15.0. The real traffic data of Turkish airspace for two peak hours period in heavy traffic covering August 2007 was provided by the General Directorate of Turkish airports. Geomedia 6.0 was employed for the visualization of the real traffic data. Findings -The total airspace workload during two peak hours of traffic, estimated reference sector capacity and the number of operational sector were defined and calculated to analyze the distribution of workload among sectors.Practical implications -This study can be used for en route sector design such as decision of the number of operational sectors and planning of sectors capacity in the strategic level. Air traffic control service providers can also refer to this study for human resources and equipment planning. Originality/value -A number of parameters and variables were defined and included in the model by taking into consideration the different service types provided by EATC. All parameters and variables were identified with the task times of the controller. This analytical approach can be applied to those particular airspaces which have different characteristics.

A Mathematical Programming Approach to Optimum Airspace Sectorisation Problem

“… where w, N, T and C signify the weighting coefficient of each task, number of aircraft, task time and weighting factor of subtask, respectively; k, l and h also represent the set of indices of subtask. The details of the ATCW measurement equation are defined in the study of Oktal and Yaman (2011).…”

A Method Framework for Automatic Airspace Reconfiguration-Monte Carlo Method for Eliminating Irregular Sector Shapes Generated by Region Growth Method

“…Many workload calculation methods have been proposed in previous studies based on dependent variables: physical activity [45], physiological indicators [46][47][48], simulation models of the controller's tasks [34,35,[49][50][51][52], and subjective ratings [53,54]. Gianazza [55] have reviewed literature about workload prediction and compared several machine learning methods on the problem of learning workload prediction models from historical data.…”

“…Task load calculation model designed by Oktal and Yaman [52] considered three kinds of task load, the monitoring task load, the conflict task load and the coordination task load. The monitoring and the conflict task loads occur inside the sector while the coordination task load between the sector and its adjacent sector.…”

A Method Framework for Automatic Airspace Reconfiguration-Monte Carlo Method for Eliminating Irregular Sector Shapes Generated by Region Growth Method

“…The research focusing on the controller workload has been carried out by a desire to balance the task load, understand occupational stress, eliminate operational errors, enhance safety and improve throughput. Many workload calculation methods have been proposed in previous studies based on dependent variables: Physical activity [57], physiological indicators [58,59,60], simulation models of the controller’s tasks [46,47,61,62,63,64] and subjective ratings [65,66]. Gianazza [67] have reviewed literature about workload prediction and compared several machine learning methods on the problem of learning workload prediction models from historical data.…”

“…Task load calculation model designed by Oktal and Yaman [64] considered three kinds of task load, the monitoring task load, the conflict task load and the coordination task load. The monitoring and the conflict task loads occur inside the sector while the coordination task load between the sector and its adjacent sector.…”