Fuzzy Comprehensive Performance Evaluation Method for Radar Control

Abstract

This paper, by emphasizing the work habits of civil aviation area radar controllers and the personnel quality requirements demanded by this industry, for the first time, analyzes performance evaluations for radar control from the factors of separation, coordination, control judgment, methods and procedures, energy savings and emission reduction, communications, and equipment. On the basis of the analysis, a comprehensive performance evaluation method was developed, and a mathematical model for evaluation indexes and a mathematical weight coefficient were established after obtaining professional opinions. By using this method to analyze the results of 37 radar controllers who attended the 3 rd On-the-Job Professional Skills Contest for China’s civil aviation air traffic management, the research results indicate that this method could accurately measure air traffic control quality and would improve air traffic control safety and its efficiency for air traffic management. An air traffic controller, whose comprehensive quality determines the reliability and stability of the whole air traffic system, plays an important role in the air transportation system. Thus, it is a necessity to evaluate a controller’s comprehensive control performance. In Document 4444, issued by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the objective of surveillance service in air traffic management is clearly defined to improve the efficiency of airspace, minimize flight delays, provide direct flight routes and optimal descending profiles for aircraft, ensure the safety of flight operations, solve potential conflicts among the aircraft, put the approaching aircraft into a highly-efficient sequence, and accelerate the departing traffic flow, etc. We can see that the Air Traffic Services (ATS) surveillance performance is determined by several factors, and there is no existing unified standard to evaluate the performance of radar control, which is the primary method to provide surveillance service currently. Air traffic control units and domestic or foreign training institutions use a subjective assessment of instructors to conduct the evaluation; however, this requires great effort, and the result is greatly affected by the subjective and inaccurate evaluation process. Related research mainly focuses on the study of controller workload in the field of human factors and the study of airspace complexity through the use of dynamic density and intrinsic metrics. In China, Liu (Liu and Huang, 2010)