Human Factors Impacts in Air Traffic Management

Mark Rodgers, Barry Kirwan, Barry Kirwan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351929776
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Aviation
• Index: Technology & Engineering

In research and application of Human Factors in Air Traffic Management (ATM) systems design, development and operation, there remains a lack of clarity regarding the range and integration of activities associated with the need for greater attention to issues such as human error, interface design and teamwork, especially in systems with increased levels of automation. This book seeks to redress this situation by presenting case studies of human factors applications in which there is demonstrable success in terms of improvement in operational systems. Individual examples are used to outline how each human factors study evolved, what it entailed, how it was resourced and how the results contributed to operational performance. Case studies include training methods, human error, team resource management, situation assessment, terminal automation replacement systems, collaborative decision-making to improve the effectiveness of traffic-flow management and the role of human factors in ATM.

PART I
INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1

Introduction

Applying Human Factors to an industrial domain can be seen as an extended process of negotiation. First there is the question of what Human Factors has to offer. This defines Human Factors from an academic or general perspective. It offers to a domain, such as Air Traffic Management (ATM), what it believes it can do best. Then there is the second question of what the client, in this case ATM, actually thinks it needs. These are the ‘drivers’ for change in ATM, whether issues of safety, demands for capacity, a temporary or anticipated shortage of controllers, etc. Once applications start occurring, a third question is reached, namely what can Human Factors actually deliver, leading to the inevitable fourth question, concerning what it can not (yet) resolve.

Both sides benefit from this negotiation process. ATM will have some problems resolved and will know the practical limitations of Human Factors. ATM will also re-shape its own perceptions of what is needed – a deeper appreciation perhaps of the necessary sophistication of the approach required to resolve problems relating to human performance in complex systems such as ATM. This appreciation may persuade some ATM organizations themselves to commit to having their own sustained efforts and resources to dealing with Human Factors issues in their organizations, leading to dedicated Human Factors groups working purely in ATM/aviation.

Human Factors in return gains experience on the useful ‘range’ of its techniques and approaches, and identifies where to carry out further development of methods. Human Factors practitioners find new ways to combine and refine techniques to answer real and pressing industrial questions. They also find new ways to express their own approaches and what Human Factors can deliver, and to justify the resources for studies and access to operational staff that are so often needed. Such experience of ‘real world’ applications is fed back to those carrying out research and method development, and is discussed at academic and professional conferences, much as doctors discuss new techniques of surgery at their own medical symposia. This process of going from theory to practice, and back to theory, is a never-ending story for applied disciplines such as Human Factors. The important point is that practice is essential, and it is essential to review such practice occasionally and sit back and reflect on where things are going well, and where refinements are needed.

There are numerous books on what Human Factors is, and a number of books on what Human Factors can offer to industries such as ATM. However, there are few books that show what has actually been delivered and has ‘worked’ in industrial settings – the third question alluded to above. The main objective of this book is therefore to illustrate what Human Factors can deliver to ATM, by presenting a set of case studies that show exactly what was delivered. This naturally leads on to a secondary objective, namely the fourth question of where Human Factors needs to improve. Since this book contains only a limited sample of all the Human Factors work ongoing in the domain of ATM, such an objective cannot be called scientific. Nevertheless, in the Discussion chapter at the end of this book, some observations are made by the editors on where it appears that Human Factors needs to either enlarge its scope of application, or develop new methods, to improve its utility to ATM.

However, before such observations, the primary objective must be realized, and so a set of nineteen chapters are presented concerning a diverse range of applications, from detailed studies of human error, to the selection of controllers following the US strike which led to dismissal of thousands of controllers. Each case study outlines how its specific application of Human Factors evolved, what it entailed, where possible how it was resourced, and how the results contributed to operational system performance.

Before presenting such chapters, it is first necessary to briefly define what Human Factors is, and to consider how it has evolved in the domain of ATM over the past forty years or so. This leads to a framework within which to organize the chapters themselves, and also from which to discuss where Human Factors in ATM needs to go in the future.

What is Human Factors?

Human Factors (or Ergonomics¹) has been defined briefly as ‘fitting the task to the man’ (Grandjean, 1981), and ‘designing for human use’ (Sanders and McCormick, 1992), and more lengthily as ‘aiming to design appliances, technical systems, and tasks in such a way as to improve human safety, health, comfort and performance’ (Dul and Weerdmaster, 1993). An implicit fourth, and operationally interesting, definition (one with which controllers might concur) is ‘give us the tools and we will finish the job’ (Oborne, 1982). Clearly Human Factors is about giving the human operator an efficient working environment and tools which take account of human strengths and limitations, but it is also about selecting the most suitable operators and giving them the required skills. In this way Human Factors seeks to optimize human performance and thus system performance, but not to the detriment of the health (physical and psychological) of the humans in the system. Human Factors can therefore be said to be ‘work-focused’, though it also demands ‘healthy’ work.

Human Factors has its roots in applied psychology, but with substantial inputs over the years from fields as diverse as medicine (e.g. to understand physiological effects on humans of work systems), physics (e.g. to understand perception), engineering and design. In fact people who are working in Human Factors themselves come from a range of backgrounds such as psychology and engineering, and it is considered a hybrid discipline.

Having briefly defined what Human Factors is, the following sub-section gives a brief historical overview of the evolution of Human Factors in the context of ATM, but also with reference to major events or developments in other industries which have shaped Human Factors approaches generally. This is followed by a summary of some of the contemporary issues in ATM Human Factors which are driving both research and applications today. This then leads on to a framework of Human Factors application areas within which to organize the chapters and make observations about the status of applied Human Factors in ATM.

Human Factors in Air Traffic Management – the Beginnings

Ever since devising tools for human use, since the Stone Ages in fact, mankind has attempted to improve the usability of his (and her) artifacts. Even though early tools may appear primitive from today’s perspective, these attempts correspond to the scope of a discipline that modern times have come to term Human Factors, i.e. the systematic elicitation and application of knowledge about human operators and their performance characteristics in order to make man-machine systems perform more efficiently, safely, and reliably whilst maximizing user satisfaction and minimizing detrimental effects on both the user and the environment. In simple words: making humans and machines cooperate effectively.

Man’s first attempts to enhance his tools were mostly of implicit and empirical nature: lessons learned during the successful – or unsuccessful – use of a tool influenced the shape and size of the next artifact via the craftsman’s experience. It was only comparatively recently that humanity started to take a more systematic and explicit approach when designing tools, and this indeed might be considered as the cradle of early Human Factors.

The roots are difficult to trace, but suffice it to say that around the early 20th century the first attempts were made to systematically study humans at work, typically focusing on manual activities. Time and motion studies were carried out, in order to standardize and improve work cycles. A pioneer in this field, Frederick W. Taylor published his theory on ‘Scientific Management’ in the early 20th century (Taylor 1911). These principles are often referred to as ‘Taylorism’ though modern times neglect the fact that apart from analyzing and improving work processes Taylor recommended employers to carefully select and train the work force and to provide positive incentives for improvements.

World War I saw an increasing number of people obliged to interact with hostile or at least stressful environments, both in combat operations and in the military supply chain, and it became paramount to ensure their reliability under these circumstances. As a consequence the military recognized the need to study the properties of human operators as well as their interactions with technical systems. The selection of army recruits, flying aptness tests, and training were among the major fields addressed at that period. Fatigue studies were initiated in ammunition factories leading to a redesign of work-rest cycles (Oborne 1982).

Until the end of World War II the emphasis of what was about to become Human Factors was primarily on testing and selection of operators. However, equipment and machinery became increasingly sophisticated and this placed a threefold increase in demand on the human operator. Firstly, the physical characteristics of the task itself became more demanding, owing for example to higher flying altitudes and speeds, which required greater physical fitness and reactions. Secondly, the interactions with the machinery itself became more complex: an increasing number of displays, levers, and controls in the cockpit for example required a solid understanding of the functioning and control of the system. Thirdly, the interaction with increasingly destructive arms and weapons, and more so the exposure to equally equipped foes aggravated the stress placed upon the operator. It soon became apparent that selection and training alone would not be sufficient to redress the situation and that the system itself would need to be designed so as to better accommodate human performance characteristics and limitations. Anthropometrics (the study of body dimensions) was amongst the earliest attempts to adapt machines to the performance characteristics of their operators (so that machines would ‘fit’ most sizes of people) – the focus began to shift from ‘fitting the human to the machine’ to ‘fitting the machine to the human’; which is echoed in the claim to overcome ‘Procrustean design’² (Oborne 1982).

An interesting event illustrates this development: during World War II a number of cases were observed in which pilots in the American Air Force damaged aircraft by retracting the gear after landing. The causes for these mishaps were attributed to the similar design and close physical location of gear and flaps levers. A remedy, quickly introduced at that time, has found its way into the design of most modern aircraft: a wheel-shaped handle on the gear lever and a spoiler-shaped handle on the flap lever have ever since prevented pilots from mistaking one for the other.

The precursors of what would later become air traffic control services were installed as early as the 1930s in the United States, initially on the initiative and under the responsibility of the major airlines. At that time most airlines began to equip their aircraft and airport-based centers with radio communication facilities and the first airport control tower went into operation in 1932. The radio facilities permitted aircraft to report their estimated arrival time and maintenance requirements to the airlines’ centers at the airport. The advantages of coordinating all aircraft approaching an airport soon became apparent and the three major airlines at that time signed an ‘Interline Agreement’ to that purpose in 1934. The control centers established in consequence were soon taken over by the US government and provided control services initially only in the vicinity of airports and based on position reporting, a technique generally referred to as procedural control.³ In 1956, a mid-air collision occurred over the Grand Canyon in the US. This single accident had a profound effect on air traffic control, leading to all air carriers operating under instrument flight rules and ‘positive’ air traffic control.

During these early years air travel grew significantly as jet aircraft came into operation. The introduction of radar systems assisted the controller in increasingly demanding tasks. The term radar has entered common usage as a definitive word yet it is actually an acronym which stands for radio detection and ranging. The British are principally credited with the development of radar on the eve of World War II. The earliest radars relied entirely upon reflected radio energy referred to as primary radar or skin paint to compute the distance and bearing of aircraft targets. This information was subsequently displayed on a cathode ray tube which showed the aircraft position relative to the radar antenna. By 1952, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which previously relied upon pilot reports, and time and distance to separate aircraft, began to use short range radars called Airport Surveillance Radars (ASRs) for approach and departure control in the vicinity of airports. Four years later, the first long range radars known as Air Route Surveillance Radars or ARSRs were extending radar coverage capability to Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCCs). The FAA continued to extend radar surveillance along major air routes during the 1960s.

A fundamental advance in air traffic control technology was the introduction of transponders to civil aircraft. Developed during World War II for military use as Identification Friend or Foe (IFF), transponders are active devices that, when triggered by a ground signal, send a signal back to the radar site where it is superimposed upon the primary radar return. This, for understandable reasons, is referred to as secondary or beacon radar. In 1960 the FAA began successful testing of a system under which flights in certain ‘positive control’ areas were required to carry a radar beacon The earliest transponders merely supplemented the primary radar return with an additional mark called the ‘beacon slash’ because it was depicted as a thin line on the far side of the primary return. However, as secondary radar technology became more sophisticated, it was possible to decode multiple transponder returns and differentiate between aircraft based upon the different codes set in their transponders.

The most significant development came in the 1960s when computer technology was fused with ATC radar to create an integrated system. Since early radars were not capable of tracking targets, controllers moved small markers called ‘shrimp boats’ around the surface of the screen to maintain the identity of aircraft targets. With the synthesis of radar and computers it became possible to track individual targets and generate discrete, electronic data tags for each identified aircraft. Depending upon equipment, data tags display such information as aircraft identity, type, speed, and altitude. Networking computers among ARTCCs and Terminal Radar Approach Controls (TRACONs) allowed for the seamless exchange of information and the automation of manual tasks such as handoffs.

In the ensuing years ATC radar has continued to evolve. Air Traffic Control towers were equipped with an increasingly sophisticated series of radars designed to survey the airport surface. These became known as Airport Surface Detection Equipment or ASDEs. The old analog radar in TRACONS was replaced with new equipment employing digital data. New procurements added color displays at terminal and En-route facilities. In the relatively near future, technologies such as Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) which actively broadcasts aircraft status information will extend the range of ATC surveillance and supplement the radar systems in use today.

Technological progress was rapid, yet the steady growth in air traffic, the fact that aircraft were traveling increasingl...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• List of Abbreviations
• Part I: Introduction
• Part II: Human Factors in Operations
• Part III: Human Factors and Human Resources
• Part IV: Human Factors Methodologies
• Part V: Human Factors Integration Programs
• Part VI: Discussion
• Index