Enhancing pilot situation awareness by using an onboard taxi guidance system: an empirical study

Abstract

This study supplements prior and concurrent field trials testing the operational benefit of an Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control System (A-SMGCS). A-SMGCS comprises a range of new technologies for both the flight deck and the air traffic control tower enabling more efficient and safe airport surface movement. These technologies are expected to significantly increase the throughput at presently highly congested major airports without compromising safety. A flight deck A-SMGCS module is the onboard guidance system TARMAC-AS. This module consists of a controller pilot data link (DL) communication and an electronic moving map (EMM), which also displays airport surface traffic information to the pilot crew. TARMAC-AS is evaluated in an investigation involving twenty commercial pilots who performed a series of approach, landing and taxiing simulation trials that were completed in a fixed-base cockpit simulator. Evaluation was based on subjective questionnaires, effectiveness of taxi operation, and visual scanning strategies derived from eye-point-of-gaze measurements. Results support the notion that EMM + DL improve awareness of the global airport surface situation, particularly under conditions of low visibility, enabling more efficient and timely surface movements and avoidance of conflicting traffic. A potential negative impact of increased head-down times was not substantiated.