Designing fine-grained interactions for automation in air traffic control

Abstract

Our work aims to explore novel approaches to the challenge of designing the interaction between people and automation. Through a case study within the domain of air traffic control, we focus on designing fine-grained human–automation interactions. We design a concept and develop an interactive lo-fi prototype of an assisted sketching system to enable air traffic controllers to interact with automation in a fine-grained manner and to externalize mental images. Assisted sketching seems to offer a possible way to communicate different degrees of predictive certainty using visual cues and interaction. Our insights further suggest that externalization through assisted sketching could encourage exploration of future scenarios, and support communication and collaboration between air traffic controllers and between air traffic controllers and pilots. The explorative benefits for the individual decision-making process might be more evident in situations where air traffic controllers have more time for reflection, for example during planning or debriefing and in educational settings.

A human-centred approach based on functional near-infrared spectroscopy for adaptive decision-making in the air traffic control environment: A case study

“…In the task2-stage, the functional connectivity between the left and right parietal regions and LPFC and RPFC were higher than for the task1-stage, indicating that appropriate visual auxiliary elements, such as object and important data indicator enhancement prompts and object visualisation, are conducive to the positive linkage effect of vision, memory and cognitive DM. Design elements research studied by Luciani et al [43] and Van Paassen et al [44] demonstrate that the visualisation auxiliary can help ATCOs operate the ATC system better, which is similar to our research. The reststage has a positive significant difference compared to the task1-stage, the task2-stage has a positive significant difference compared to the task1-stage, and there was no significant difference between the rest-stage and task2-stage, which may indicate that the optimised map task is closer to the resting state, and a descriptive map makes subjects fatigued.…”

“…Therefore, the research on interface and system designs of the ATC system has increased gradually. In order to solve the problem of coarsegrained rotation interaction of ATC automation operation, Luciani et al [43] developed a set of lowfidelity prototypes by using auxiliary sketch models to perform fine-grained interaction on the radar display human-machine interface and re-designed the display and interaction formats of the interface elements in the system. Van Paassen et al [44] presented a shared representation of 4D trajectory management design based on the cognitive systems engineering framework, and also adopted a formative approach in the field of analysis of 4D trajectory planning.…”

“…Meanwhile, this layer also involves design and optimisation progress based on reliable data and parameters to prompt the ATC system to become smarter and friendlier for ATCOs, guaranteeing the high-efficiency operation with advanced DM. For example, Luciani et al [43] redesigned the display and interaction formats of the interface elements in the system by using auxiliary sketch models based on users' preference and experience.…”

Designing Human-Automation Collaboration for Predictive Maintenance

“…It is clear that the current capabilities of AI technology already enable significant degrees of automation of operation and maintenance in the visionary context of an automated warehouse. It is equally clear that for reasons to do with reliability, accountability and bigpicture judgment abilities, humans will need to be monitoring and intervening in operation as well as maintenance [1,4,7,15,19]. For the foreseeable future, we expect human-automation collaboration (HAC) to be the most fruitful design approach to the automated warehouse vision.…”