Airport Control Research Articles

Predictive Analysis of Controllers’ Cognitive Errors Using the TRACEr Technique: A Case Study in an Airport Control Tower

Background: In complex socio-technical systems like aviation systems, human error is said to be the main cause of air transport incidents, accounting for about 75 percent of these incidents and events. air traffic management (ATM) is considered a highly reliable industry; however, there is a persistent need to identify safety vulnerabilities and reduce them or their effects, as ATM is very human-centered and will remain so, at least in the mid-term (e.g., until 2025). Objectives: The current study aimed to conduct a predictive analysis of controllers’ cognitive errors using the TRACEr technique in an airport control tower. Materials and Methods: This paper was done as a qualitative case study to identify controllers’ errors in an airport control tower. First, the controllers’ tasks were described by means of interviews and observation, and then the most critical tasks, which were more likely to have more errors, were chosen to be examined. In the next step, the tasks were broken down into sub-tasks using the hierarchical analysis method and presented as HTA charts. Finally, for all the sub-tasks, different error modes and mechanisms of their occurrence were identified and the results were recorded on TRACEr worksheets. Results: The analysis of TRACEr worksheets showed that of a total 315 detected errors, perception and memory errors are the most important errors in tower control controllers’ tasks, and perceptual and spatial confusion is the most important psychological factor related to their occurrence. Conclusions: The results of this study led to the identification of many of the errors and conditions that affect the performance of controllers, providing the ability to define safety and ergonomic interventions to reduce the risk of human error. Therefore, the results of this study can be a basis for planning ATM to prioritize prevention programs and safety enhancement

Desenvolvimento da Vigilância Epidemiológica de Fronteira no contexto da Globalização: conceitos e marcos teóricos.

Objetivo. Apresentar e analisar as ações desenvolvidas para a implementação e desenvolvimento de Vigilância Epidemiológica de Fronteiras, nos Blocos Econômicos Multinacionais, particularmente na América do Sul e Brasil. Metodologia. Foi realizado um estudo de revisão narrativa incluindo artigos científicos, documentos técnicos, diretrizes, normas, manuais, pautas de reuniões ou qualquer outro documento que fosse relacionado ao desenvolvimento e implementação de ações e programas de Vigilância Epidemiológica em Fronteiras. O estudo foi baseado nos sites das instituições/organizações multinacionais e nas bases MedLine, PubMed, Scielo e Scopus. Resultados. Foram identificados a criação de órgãos e ações no intuito de implementar e desenvolver a vigilância epidemiológica de fronteiras para os seguintes blocos: União Europeia (Health Security Committee, European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Sistema de alerta rápido e resposta, General Rapid Alert System e Rede de Monitoramento Ad Hoc); Tratado Norte-Americano de Livre Comércio (Border Infectious Disease Surveillance, “Projeto de Vigilância e Alerta Rápido de Doenças Infeciosas”) ; Mercado Comum do Sul ( Reunião de Ministros da Saúde do Mercosul, Subgrupo de Trabalho 11 Saúde e Subcomissão Controle Sanitário de Portos, Aeroportos, Terminais e Passos Fronteiriços Terrestres); e União de Nações Sul-Americanas. Conclusões. Os programas e politicas desenvolvidos até o momento refletem o reconhecimento da importância do assunto por parte dos Estados Membros da OMS. Uma maior integração, com troca de informações, incluindo fluxos, frameworks, planos de preparação e o fortalecimento de áreas estratégicas como de energia e transporte deve ser incentivada intra e inter blocos.

Analysis on Plateau Environment Acclimatization Strategy for New Air Traffic Controllers

The new controllers of plateau airports are at the higher risk of acute mountain sickness (AMS) caused by the reduced pressure and hypoxia. The rapid growth of air traffic flow of plateau airports in recent years boosts the increasing number of new air traffic controllers of plateau region. So it has great significance for the improvement of air traffic control (ATC) of plateau airports how to prevent AMS in an effective way. To enhance the ATC efficiency, it is also very important to improve the prevention work for AMS. Firstly, the current operation state of plateau airports is discussed in brief. And the analysis on AMS is conducted to present what AMS is and ascertain the effects of AMS on the new controllers and their work. And the new strategy, an effective way to improve the plateau environment acclimatization of the new members, is proposed in this paper.

Application of Simulation Technology on Airport System

With the rapid development of aviation industry which leads to a continuous expansion of the airport and an increasing throughput growth has brought more and more problems to the regular operations of the airport and traffic control. Since simulation can accurately predict the future tendency of a system, especially those complex and stationary systems about airports, it can reduce the waste of recourses and inconvenience to passengers caused by policy mistakes. The article overviews the status of the research on airport simulation technology and summarizes the application of simulation technology in airport system, furthermore, points out the shortage and development of airport simulation.

Extitutions and security: movement as code

How can we guarantee the security of our means of transport? How can we strengthen that of our communications? How can we keep our ideology or our market safe? Etc. In this context, the press has recently been asking whether it is possible to be 100% certain that a person is not concealing a dangerous item on passing through an airport control. Nonetheless, technical solutions may be about to alter the aforementioned scenario. Indeed, the authorities in a number of countries have decided to install scanners at airports that allow people to be completely undressed without having to remove their clothes. The protests which have been voiced, quite reasonably, against this measure have been completely stifled by arguments based on security. Just a glance at the press in any European country in the last few days will confirm this affirmation. The example of scanners has not been a random choice to begin this article. It has to do with the fact that airports are truly a unique place to illustrate one of the most characteristic phenomena of our current societies: the need to manage mobility and security in unison. However, from our point of view security is much more than an excuse for legitimising procedures for surveillance and control, or a characteristic feature of contemporary states. It constitutes the very logic of such states. It is characterised by circulation and movement, and it operates as an authentic code that is capable of generating new forms of sociality and regimes of power.

Validation of the CSA Z107,56 standard method for the measurement of noise exposure from headsets

The last section of the CSA Standard CAN/CSA-Z107.56-06 (R2011)—Procedures for the Measurement of Occupational Noise Exposure—deals with communication headsets. This section is typically applied in retail, call centers, airport control towers, and other settings where an operator is exposed to background noise while communicating with a headset. Because the user adjusts the volume to hear speech comfortably, the total equivalent sound level is a function of the level of the background noise minus the attenuation provided by the headset, plus a comfortable signal/noise ratio, estimated to be 13.5 dBA. Despite ample research demonstrating the role of spectral and temporal factors in speech masking, the standard is applied consistently regardless of the type of background.

Challenges of Multiple Airport Control

Recent developments in avionics and ground-sensor technology have led to multiple approaches toward remote traffic control for small, regional airports. We investigated a new operational concept considering the simultaneous control of several airports from a single remote location in an experimental setup. The number of airports and the control principle – that is, the control of one versus several aircraft at a time – were compared applying a multiple-task paradigm. The impact of both variables on relevant performance indicators was assessed. While performance in issuing clearances was excellent in all conditions, mental effort increased and detection performance deteriorated with the number of controlled airports. Surprisingly, the several-at-a-time principle enhanced detection performance for unexpected events and reduced response times to situational awareness queries.

The islanding effect: post-disaster mobility systems and humanitarian logistics in Haiti

Natural disasters bring to the fore the astounding interdependence and fragility of the complex mobility systems and infrastructural moorings that make up contemporary transnational geographies. Cities – and especially entire islands – suffering catastrophic events are illustrative of how the dynamic intertwining of transportation, communication, provisioning, and scheduling systems can rapidly unravel. Through an analysis of the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, this article examines how natural disasters demobilize and remobilize; how they strike at mobility systems and trouble mobility justice; and also engender their own unique mobilities (and immobilities). Through an analysis of the uneven network capital expended as humanitarian mobility into post-earthquake Port-au-Prince (with comparison to post-hurricane New Orleans) it is shown how post-disaster logistics simultaneously produce disconnections, limit capabilities for mobility, and introduce what is theorized as an ‘islanding effect’ on the victims of the disaster. This is further delineated through close analysis of two crucial post-earthquake reconfigurations: the militarization of air mobilities and the humanitarian use of aerial visioning technologies and GIS in the emergency response. US military control of the international airport and use of aerial surveillance and geo-mapping for disaster response reinforced existing uneven mobility regimes, which subject marginalized and racialized populations of the Caribbean to enhanced border control, migrant interdiction and criminalization. Through the disaster response itself, rapid deployment of these new (im)mobility infrastructures deepened spatial inequalities, diminished mobility justice, and reproduced subjects with differential mobility capability. The article also considers counter-geographies and resistance to the injustices of post-disaster mobility regimes.

Airport and seaport police association pilots biometric access control

Airport and seaport police association pilots biometric access control

The Role of Workload for Work Organization in a Remote Tower Control Center

This paper focuses on the role of workload for work organization in a future remote control tower center. Currently, a tower is equipped with a controller team that maintains the declared surface movement rate under all weather conditions within the aerodrome visibility operational level (AVOL), while maintaining the required level of safety. Novel concepts consider remote control of multiple regional airports from a control center. In a simulator study at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Flight Guidance, a remote center working environment was realized for controlling two regional airports. In a three-factor experimental design we investigated different work organizations and their effects on workload. In addition, expert observers identified safety critical ATC situations. The results are discussed with respect to what can be learned for work organization and future ATC concepts. This paper aims at better understanding the basic conditions an air traffic controller needs to meet his obligations. Such knowledge is indispensable when developing novel concepts for remote control of regional airports.

Hybrid Time‐Frequency Blind Source Separation Towards Ambient System Identification of Structures

Abstract: Ambient system identification in noisy environments, in the presence of low‐energy modes or closely‐spaced modes, is a challenging task. Conventional blind source separation techniques such as second‐order blind identification (SOBI) and Independent Component Analysis (ICA) do not perform satisfactorily under these conditions. Furthermore, structural system identification for flexible structures require the extraction of more modes than the available number of independent sensor measurements. This results in the estimation of a non‐square modal matrix that is spatially sparse. To overcome these challenges, methods that integrate blind identification with time‐frequency decomposition of signals have been previously presented. The basic idea of these methods is to exploit the resolution and sparsity provided by time‐frequency decomposition of signals, while retaining the advantages of second‐order source separation methods. These hybrid methods integrate two powerful time‐frequency decompositions—wavelet transforms and empirical mode decomposition—into the framework of SOBI. In the first case, the measurements are transformed into the time‐frequency domain, followed by the identification using a SOBI‐based method in the transformed domain. In the second case, a subset of the operations are performed in the transformed domain, while the remaining procedure is conducted using the traditional SOBI method. A new method to address the under‐determined case arising from sparse measurements is proposed. Each of these methods serve to address a particular situation: closely‐spaced modes or low‐energy modes. The proposed methods are verified by applying them to extract the modal information of an airport control tower structure located near Toronto in Canada.

ATC-Monitoring When One Controller Operates Two Airports: Research for Remote Tower Centres

The paper aims at understanding crucial variables that influence the control of visual attention of tower controllers. Novel concepts for aerodrome control of regional airports consider to remotely control two or more airports at a time from one remote center. A simulation experiment was set up where 12 professional tower controllers operated parallel traffic of two airports. Eye gaze recording and questionnaires were used. Two feedback loops are considered to influence the controllers monitoring behavior: The accessibility of the information of the “far-view” and controller strategies. The results show that both variables have a crucial influence on how often the controller updates the information of one airport. This implies that monitoring performance depends on system design and behavioral strategies. These dependencies can be applied to the design of novel ATC-workplaces.

Scheduling aircraft landings to balance workload of ground staff

Scheduling landings of aircrafts is an essential problem which is continuously solved as part of the daily operations of an airport control tower. All planes in the airspace of an airport are to be assigned to landing slots by the responsible air-traffic controller. The support of this decision problem with suited optimization approaches has a long lasting tradition in operations research. However, none of the former approaches investigates the impact of the landing sequence on the workload of ground staff. The paper on hand presents three novel objectives for the aircraft landing problem, which aim at leveling the workload of ground staff by evenly spreading: (1) number of landed passengers, (2) landings per airline, and (3) number of landed passengers per airline over the planning horizon. Mathematical models along with complexity results are developed and exact and heuristic solution procedures are presented.

Robotic cleaning system for glass facade of high‐rise airport control tower

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe the development of a robotic cleaning system for applying on the glass facade of the control tower at the Guangzhou Airport, in Guangzhou, China.Design/methodology/approachFour similar robotic cleaning systems are designed for a reversed cone‐shape glass facade at the top of the control tower. One system is composed of a robot moving along and cleaning the facade, and an automatic conveyer positioning, securing, supplying energy and water to, and recycling the dirty water from the robot. An on‐board controller enables the system to work in a remote control mode or a fully automated mode under the supervision of an operator.FindingsThis paper presents how to integrate the attaching, moving, cleaning and securing functions into one robotic system for the high rise glass facade, and focuses on the kinematics, the control and sensor system and the cleaning navigation. In particular, the real time control method of the vacuum in the cup is discussed to ensure high cleaning quality and security.Research limitations/implicationsSince the cleaning system proposed in this paper is a custom‐built one, the generalization of its design idea should be tested in other applications.Practical implicationsThe paper includes the implications for the development of automatic cleaning system for the high‐rise buildings with reversed inclining glass façade.Originality/valueThe robotic cleaning system described in this paper is the first fully automated cleaning machine for the reversed inclining glass facade in China. It works effectively and reliably on the control tower of the Guangzhou airport.

Airborne Collision Avoidance System for low attitude flights using Radio Data System

Radio Data System (RDS) is a mature technique which has been developed over the past 20 years. Due to the common use of FM radio, the traits of low estate requirement and the convenience in broadcasting, RDS is suitable for use in wireless transmission of large-range and low-load data. This proposes the application of RDS in the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) for low altitude flights. The real-time surveillance information from the airport control center of low attitude flights can be wirelessly transmitted in real-time to the RDS receiver in the aircrafts. Because of the low-price of RDS broadcast station and the widespread use of RDS receiver contributed by the application of RDS-TMC for car navigation system in recent years, using RDS as the redundancy communication system in low altitude flights is plausible in almost every aspect, Nevertheless, one thing left to be desired is the slow transferring speed (1187.5 bps) of RDS, which is amended in this research by particularly designed data formats to reduce the information load in each transmission. As a result, the application proposed herein is feasible.

Assessment of Visual Cues by Tower Controllers, with Implications for a Remote Tower Control Centre

Remote control of airports implies application of cameras to replace direct visual observation from airport control towers by projection of the airport and its traffic in a remote control centre. Remote airport control is an emerging technique with benefits for smaller airports mainly, because it reduces the cost of personnel. Surprisingly, hardly any literature can be found to list the required visual objects and phenomena for tower control, i.e. the visual cues that need to be seen for tower control. The composition and validation of the so-called visual cue list for tower control is the subject of this paper. Tower controller task analysis was used to compose a ‘long-list’ of visual features. The long-list has been presented to a group of operational air traffic controllers to test the need and the circumstances to observe these visual cues. Our analysis shows that most of the visual cues are useful for operational tower control but are not strictly mandatory for applying the rules of the International Civil Aviation Organization.. The requirement for visual image resolution of remote tower control is the second subject of the paper. Our analysis leads to definition of a ‘short-list’ of important safety-related visual objects and phenomena for tower control and the conclusion that state of the art media are just able to provide the required image resolution for visual detection but not for recognition.

Challenges for the Communication Environment and Communication Concept for Remote Airport Traffic Control Centres

In cooperation with experts of the German air traffic control service provider Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH, researchers of the chair of cognitive psychology and cognitive ergonomics at Berlin Institute of Technology are currently working on the development of a communication environment and a communication concept for the simultaneous remote control of several regional airports during times of marginal traffic. One of their main research questions deals with the identification of factors contributing to the preservation of the required safety level for the new communication environment. For example, it is investigated how the spatial arrangement of different communication media influences the accuracy and celerity of mapping acoustic signals to different airports. The paper presents a summary of the ongoing research project, including a presentation of selected results obtained during an analysis of today's tower communication. In addition, an overview of relevant theoretical aspects from the area of cognitive psychology for a first empirical study is given.

Experimental System for Remote Airport Traffic Control Center Research

The ultimate goal of the research below is development of airport traffic control without the need of a real tower building, Specifically, we address the intermediate step of a Remote Airport Tower Center (RTC) for remote surveillance and control of small airports. An experimental high-resolution digital video panorama system was implemented to replace the airport tower out-the-window view. Field tests of this reconstructed view show that the effective visual resolution of a 180°-video panorama agrees with theoretical predictions. Such a video panorama provides the framework for video-see-through augmented vision by integration of weather and transponder data, and it allows for video replay. An integrated zoom function provides a “foveal” component by means of a remotely controlled pan-tilt-zoom camera which can also track moving objects. Besides the RTC experimental system for field testing, a simulation environment is described to simultaneous simulate two airports. It can be used to support statistically reliable testing of professional tower controllers for the evaluation of new concepts of operations.

Visual Features Involving Motion Seen from Airport Control Towers

Visual motion cues are used by tower controllers to support both visual and anticipated separation. Some of these cues are tabulated as part of the overall set of visual features used in towers to separate aircraft. An initial analyses of one motion cue, landing deceleration, is provided as a basis for evaluating how controllers detect and use it for spacing aircraft on or near the surface. Understanding cues like it will help determine if they can be safely used in a remote/virtual tower in which their presentation may be visually degraded.

Predicting Visibility of Aircraft

Visual detection of aircraft by human observers is an important element of aviation safety. To assess and ensure safety, it would be useful to be able to be able to predict the visibility, to a human observer, of an aircraft of specified size, shape, distance, and coloration. Examples include assuring safe separation among aircraft and between aircraft and unmanned vehicles, design of airport control towers, and efforts to enhance or suppress the visibility of military and rescue vehicles. We have recently developed a simple metric of pattern visibility, the Spatial Standard Observer (SSO). In this report we examine whether the SSO can predict visibility of simulated aircraft images. We constructed a set of aircraft images from three-dimensional computer graphic models, and measured the luminance contrast threshold for each image from three human observers. The data were well predicted by the SSO. Finally, we show how to use the SSO to predict visibility range for aircraft of arbitrary size, shape, distance, and coloration.