Exploring the effects of speech speed and environmental noise on human and machine performance in civil air traffic control communication tasks

Abstract

Considering the relative strengths of humans and machines may not be static, this study investigates the effects of speech speed and environmental noise on human and machine performance in the context of civil air traffic control communication. 32 participants were recruited to perform route selection, parameter setting and radio adjustment according to the voice commands from the control tower. Their performance was evaluated with respect to varying levels of speech speed, environmental noise and time pressure. Additionally, human performance was compared to that of a machine (i.e. a voice recognition software). The experimental results showed that both speech speed and environmental noise had significant effects on human performance in terms of recognition accuracy and operation accuracy. Humans excel in situations with high noise and low speech speed, while machines outperform humans when dealing with high speech speed and low noise. The findings demonstrate that a static human-machine function allocation method may not always yield optimal results. Suggestions are provided on how to develop a dynamic allocation method.