Analysis of Team Communication and Collaboration in En-Route Air Traffic Control

Abstract

Ethnographic field observation was carried out at the Tokyo Air Traffic Control Center to obtain video, radio communication, verbal conversation, and journal records. Having analyzed these data based on the cognitive model of a radar controller of our previous work and a notion of Team Situation Awareness (TSA), a cognitive model of an ATC team has been established. It was revealed that instantiation of TSA heavily owes to verbal communication but that role assignment among team members is implicitly and smoothly determined once TSA has been established. Team cognitive process of ATC controllers is therefore well described by TSA development and Naturalistic Decision-Making (NDM).

A Systematic Literature Review on Decision-Making Processes among Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs) in Managing the Arrival of the Aircrafts during Conflict Resolution

“…The study concerned on the ability of automation support to integrate naturalistic decision-making models among the ATCOs. On top of that, Furuta et al (2009) recommended that NDM model can be applied to the distributed cognitive process in team collaboration among the ATCOs. There was another related research conducted which aimed to develop NDM methodology which will help the ATCOs during simulation exercises (Bonaceto et al, 2005).…”

“…Decision-making is basically a process of choosing one option based on the alternatives available (Robbins & Coulter, 2014, p. 188). Empirically, most of the past related studies conducted overseas were focusing on NDM (Bonaceto et al, 2005;Corver & Grote, 2016;Furuta et al, 2009). Other than that, there was research done towards decision-making and planning among the Air Traffic Control Specialists as well as the related cognitive processes which include learning, memory and situation awareness (D'Arcy & Rocco, 2001).…”