EURET

European Commission Directorate-General For Mobility And Transport

Description

Air transport: SWIFT: Specification for controller working positions in future air traffic control
Research policy and organisation
Air and space transport

Informations

• Publié par: EUROPEAN-COMMISSION-DIRECTORATE-GENERAL-FOR-MOBILITY-AND-TRANSPORT
• Nombre de lectures: 10
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

TRANSPORT RESEARCH
EURET
AIR TRANSPORT
eNb'
EUROPEAN
COMMISSION
Specification for controller working
positions in future air traffic control
DIRECTORATE-
GENERAL
TRANSPORT TRANSPORT RESEARCH
EURET
AIR TRANSPORT
Specification for controller working
positions in future air traffic control
SWIFT The information contained in this publication does not necessarily reflect either the
position or the views of the European Commission
Coordinator:
Thomson CSF/SDC
Contractors:
ESG
N LR
Siemens Plessey Systems
Sofreavia/CENA
SYSECA
Associated contractors:
Captec
INESC
Roke Manor Research
University of the Aegean
Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication
Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1996
ISBN 92-827-7426-0
© ECSC-EC-EAEC, Brussels · Luxembourg, 1996
Printed in the United Kingdom TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary 5
SUMMARY 7
1. INTRODUCTION 13
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS7
3. ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE PERIOD 3
4. DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS 76
5. FUTURE TOPICS OF RESEARCH 93
6. DISSEMINATION OF RESULTS8
GLOSSARY 101
References3 Executive Summary
During the SWIFT project, the technical activities followed two different lines the "HMI oriented
activities" and the "CWP Architecture" oriented activities.
As a basis of the HMI activities, experimental evaluations of several HMIs corresponding to several
scenarios were undertaken. The scenarios were selected to cover a representative sample of
operational environments where the consequences of the introduction of functions ( such as
Automated tools, ADS and Data link communication, Vertical profile displays..) on the Controller
Machine Interface were experimented. These experiments involved up to 36 ATCos weeks coming
from 8 different european Air Traffic Control Centers.
In parallel, in the Human Factors aspects (WP6), an evaluation instrument (structured
questionnaire) was developed to measure the impact of different ATC automated functions on a
range of human factors aspects. This questionnaire was used with several amendments in the ODID
IV experiments.
Once the experiments completed, the "HMI oriented activities" were dedicated to finalize the results
of the experiments performed with the ATCOs during the previous periods, to analyse which outputs
can be considered as technically significant and to provide the functional specification of the
functions which were validated during the experiments.
The relevant reports were completed by the realisation of the SWIFT Demonstrator. The most
interesting and innovative validated ideas and concepts emerging from the HMI studies performed
during the SWIFT experiments are presented on a single workstation with a 2K 2K screen. The
development of this demonstrator was completed by the end of 1994.
In the same time, the "Rules for the Anthropometric Design" (ref3) based on the evaluation of two
full Control suite prototypes were produced.
Regarding the Architecture oriented activities, the performance requirements were updated taking
into account the outcome of the "General Architecture", "Graphics Interface" and "LAN
Management".
The achievements of the "General Architecture" (WP7) include the definition of a possible Control
Suite (CS)/Controller Working Position (CWP) architecture on the basis of a scenario taking into
account the integration of longer-term functions (datalink, what-if-tools, decision making aids, ...)
and a fully distributed flight plan processing within the Control Suite.
For the "LAN Manager" (WP8), a LAN Manager HMI Prototype with the simulation environment was
implemented and a market survey for network & system management products conducted.
In the "Graphics Interface" (WP9), the specification of the future graphics layer for ATM was drawn
relying upon driving principles concerning design (open system, customization, ...) and integrating
Air Traffic Management functionalities (recording & replay, multi-view, ...). In "Functional blocks" (WP11), the recommendations for the design of an open software
architecture of the future CWP based on the functional analysis of the operational environment and
internal/external interfaces are identified.
Regarding the "Graphics and Networks" (WP12) , a synthesis and a consolidation of the outcomes
of the LAN Management WP and the Graphics WP was performed SUMMARY
During the SWIFT project, the technical activities followed two different lines the "HMI
oriented activities" and the "CWP Architecture" oriented activities.
HMI ORIENTED ACTIVITIES
The "HMI oriented activities" were dedicated to:
define scenarios covering a representative sample of operational environments
where the consequences of the introduction of functions ( such as Automated tools,
ADS and Data link communication, Vertical profile displays..) on the Controller
Machine Interface were experimented.
consolidate and finalize the results of the experiments performed with the ATCOs
and to analyse which outputs can be considered as technically significant,
to provide the functional specification of the functions which were validated during
the experiments,
to apply the full methodology of description of the HMI (defined in WP10) toa subset
of these functions,
to implement on a single demonstrator the most interesting features of the different
HMI which were evaluated during the experiments.
A set of Basic Operational Scenarios and Options taking into account the progressive
implementation of ATM functions from now till the year 2015 was defined. As it is not
possible within the SWIFT Project to perform an evaluation for every imaginable scenario,
a selection was made based upon three main criteria:
TMA, FIR and UIR En Route and Oceanic operational environments were
covered, and different traffic loads and constraints were considered,
a large scope of functions were taken into account so that the various
conceivable consequences for the Human Machine Interface - HMI - of the
Controller Working Position were explored,
different estimated implementation dates were considered (for both phase A
and phase B) so that the whole SWIFT time scale is covered and transition
problems are addressed.
These experiments involved up to 36 ATCos weeks coming from 8 different european Air
Traffic Control Centers. Five different partners of the consortium were involved in the Experimental trials of the
scenarios : two ATM research centers namely CENA (France) and NLR (Netherlands) and
three Industrial companies THOMSON -CSF/SDC (France), SIEMENS PLESSEY
SYSTEMS ( UK) and ROKE MANOR RESEARCH.
In parallel, with a close link with the experiments analysis and the Demonstrator, the
Specifications of the HMI (WP 10) were produced through three different outputs:
the definition of a suitable methodology and formalism for the description of HMI
specifications, the preliminary step to ensure a real harmonisation in the description
of HMI specifications. The set of validated HMI functions and the detailed HMI
specifications are therefore described in a common way, independent of the test-bed
they are derived from,
the description of Human Factors (HF) recommendations applicable in the design of
ATM applications: HF items previously described in "Recommendations for detailed
scenarios and performance requirements" ( [ref 1 ]) but also in "Evaluation of existing
prototypes" ( [ref 2]) are addressed more specifically according to the results of the
different SWIFT experiments. HF recommendations applicable in the design of ATM
applications are extracted from this list of HF items and presented with the
associated rationale,
the description of general HMI mechanisms applicable in the design of ATM
applications (proposed as recommendations in the design of ATM applications).
These HMI mechanisms are supported by and related to HF recommendations
previously described.
The SWIFT Demonstrator is an extension of the original work programme agreed between
the Consortium and the CEC to support the presentation of the results and to demonstrate
the involvement in ATC Research of the CEC Directorate General for Transport,
EUROCONTROL and the partners of the SWIFT Consortium.The most interesting and
innovative validated ideas and concepts emerging from the HMI studies performed during
the SWIFT experiments are presented on a single workstation with a 2K 2K screen. The
development of this demonstrator was completed according to the original schedule (by the
end of 1994).
Regarding the Human Factors aspects (WP6), the objectives were to collect human factors
results from SWIFT experimental sessions, to analyse Human Factors data and to produce
Anthropometric Guidelines for the design of the Controller Working Position (CWP).
During the project was performed a literature review and database search on human
factors findings from studies on advanced complex systems and existing reports of
experiments on advanced ATC systems. This review revealed major Human Fa