Review of Automation Problems in Air Traffic Control

Abstract

Automation of an air traffic control system is expected as a solution for handling high traffic demand in the future. Focus on using automation is mostly on its benefits, but automation could bring problems regarding human performance, which should not be neglected. Air traffic controllers' role and tasks are changing with system automation and their mutual cooperation should be carefully observed. In this paper, performance of air traffic controllers within automated systems is presented. At any time, automation system could fail, and human should be able to take over and perform additional tasks that the system performed before failure. Therefore, it is essential to observe human reaction and recovery response time. The work presents problems that occur during system usage, explains models of automation system and human performance as well as models of individual and team performance. Humans individual differences, such as mental model or trust in automation, are of great importance for predicting human behavior when using automated system. Researchers have tried to solve or prevent problems caused by automation through different projects. This review paper should enable better understanding of automation problems in air traffic control thus encouraging the development of automated systems in a way to solve or prevent automation problems.