A Human-In-The-Loop Simulation Study on the Requirements of Air Traffic Control Operations for Expanding Continuous Descent Operations

Abstract

AbstractContinuous descent operations (CDO) is an efficient aircraft descent procedure that results in minimal fuel consumption because aircraft descend from their optimal top of descent (TOD) at idle engine thrust. To expand the implementation of CDO, we focus on enhancing the decision-making abilities of air traffic controllers (ATCOs). We conducted a series of human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulations to understand the issues involved in CDO approval decision making by ATCOs and to provide effective inputs to support the decision making. From our initial simulation results, we identified several issues that can affect ATCO CDO-specific decisions. As a proposal to solve these issues, we then created support information displays and evaluated them in follow-on simulations. Our support displays were found to be increasingly effective if their information was sufficiently accurate to avoid premature judgment. It was also found necessary to provide support information to ATCOs to enable more proactive air traffic control (ATC) measures for CDO execution.KeywordsAir traffic controlContinuous descent operationsHuman-in-the-loop simulation