Air Traffic Control Training Research Articles

Assessing the Speed–Accuracy Tradeoff in Psychological Testing Using Experimental Manipulations

The speed–accuracy tradeoff (SAT), where increased response speed often leads to decreased accuracy, is well established in experimental psychology. However, its implications for psychological assessments, especially in high-stakes settings, remain less understood. This study presents an experimental approach to investigate the SAT within a high-stakes spatial ability assessment. By manipulating instructions in a within-subjects design to induce speed variations in a large sample ( N = 1,305) of applicants for an air traffic controller training program, we demonstrate the feasibility of manipulating working speed. Our findings confirm the presence of the SAT for most participants, suggesting that traditional ability scores may not fully reflect performance in high-stakes assessments. Importantly, we observed individual differences in the SAT, challenging the assumption of uniform SAT functions across test takers. These results highlight the complexity of interpreting high-stakes assessment outcomes and the influence of test conditions on performance dynamics. This study offers a valuable addition to the methodological toolkit for assessing the intraindividual relationship between speed and accuracy in psychological testing (including SAT research), providing a controlled approach while acknowledging the need to address potential confounders. Future research may apply this method across various cognitive domains, populations, and testing contexts to deepen our understanding of the SAT’s broader implications for psychological measurement.

The air traffic control training process: A review of research

Air traffic control (ATC) is a complex part of the air transport system. Training in this activity takes more than one year and requires special qualities and abilities from all participants in this process. Recent studies consider the learning process as one of the determining factors that further influences the efficiency of aviation personnel. The purpose of this review article was to describe the available researches on the ATC training process and related areas, to analyze them, to identify gaps and areas where further research can be conducted. The studies were divided into several areas: studies analyzing ATC training programs (at the FAA Academy and other organizations); research related to simulator training; instructor methods in ATC training; related to ATC instructor competence; interaction between the instructor and the student, etc. In preparing this review, literature sources were used in publications included in Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Cyberleninka and Russian Science Citation Index. Preference was given to sources published in the last 17 years. The work can be useful for researchers of psychological, pedagogical aspects of the work of ATC instructors, students, as well as all those who are interested in finding methods to improve the efficiency of ATC and reduce the impact of the human factor on their work.

A Virtual Simulation-Pilot Agent for Training of Air Traffic Controllers

In this paper we propose a novel virtual simulation-pilot engine for speeding up air traffic controller (ATCo) training by integrating different state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI)-based tools. The virtual simulation-pilot engine receives spoken communications from ATCo trainees, and it performs automatic speech recognition and understanding. Thus, it goes beyond only transcribing the communication and can also understand its meaning. The output is subsequently sent to a response generator system, which resembles the spoken read-back that pilots give to the ATCo trainees. The overall pipeline is composed of the following submodules: (i) an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system that transforms audio into a sequence of words; (ii) a high-level air traffic control (ATC)-related entity parser that understands the transcribed voice communication; and (iii) a text-to-speech submodule that generates a spoken utterance that resembles a pilot based on the situation of the dialogue. Our system employs state-of-the-art AI-based tools such as Wav2Vec 2.0, Conformer, BERT and Tacotron models. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work fully based on open-source ATC resources and AI tools. In addition, we develop a robust and modular system with optional submodules that can enhance the system’s performance by incorporating real-time surveillance data, metadata related to exercises (such as sectors or runways), or even a deliberate read-back error to train ATCo trainees to identify them. Our ASR system can reach as low as 5.5% and 15.9% absolute word error rates (WER) on high- and low-quality ATC audio. We also demonstrate that adding surveillance data into the ASR can yield a callsign detection accuracy of more than 96%.

Determining the Key Factors Affecting Pseudo-Pilot Workload Based on Real-Time Simulations

Pseudo-pilots work in real-time simulations in air traffic control training and carry out an important task to ensure appropriate training for the trainee controllers. They are in constant communication with controllers during the training and are responsible for fulfilling the instructions given by the controllers. Unlike real operations, pseudo-pilots are required to monitor many aircraft simultaneously on the simulator’s radar screen and perform various interventions. This situation can be challenging, and the impact of such situations on their workload is usually neglected. In the literature, various studies have revealed the factors affecting controller workload; however, the factors affecting the workload of pseudo-pilots have not been emphasized. In this study, statistical analyses were carried out using the data obtained from real-time simulations and NASA-TLX surveys. As a result, the number of aircraft, controller performance, and the interruption duration were determined as the key factors that affect the overall workload of pseudo-pilots.

INVESTIGATING ENGLISH FOR AVIATION: AN IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS OF AVIATION ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS

The purpose of this research study was to conduct an in-depth analysis and compare three popular aviation English textbooks that are used in the training of pilots and air traffic controllers. Additionally, it also aimed to investigate the pedagogical principles underpinning each of the three textbooks. The three selected textbooks were published by three internationally renowned publishers and were chosen because they are widely used in aviation training schools and made as main references. This research study adopted a content analysis method by employing a three-level analysis framework as suggested by (Littlejohn 2011). In addition, Ellis’s (2005) list of ten instructed language learning principles were referred to draw conclusions regarding the pedagogical principles underpinning of the three textbooks. The findings suggested that Textbook 3 was the most favourable, Textbook 1 was the second most favourable, and Textbook 2 was the least favourable. Textbook 3 was found to promote more language initiations, more higher order mental operations, more interactions, more authentic inputs, and more opportunities for output productions than Textbooks 1 and 2.

DISTANCE PROFESSIONALLY ORIENTED ENGLISH EDUCATION OF THE FUTURE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS: SYNCHRONOUS AND ASYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATION

The purpose of this study is to disclose synchronous and asynchronous means of distance professionally oriented English education of future air traffic controllers, which is considered to be ones of the main ways to organize an effective organization of foreign language training of future air traffic controllers. We have come to conclusion that by means of the most modern tools for synchronous and asynchronous communication, the interactivity and formation of foreign language communicative competence of the future air traffic controllers have been increased. Key words: asynchronous communication, aviation specialist, distance education, foreign language, synchronous communication.

Modeling and Characterizing Aircraft Trajectories Near Airports Using Extracted Control Actions

With the long-term goal of supporting the training of air traffic controllers and ensuring safety through real-time monitoring of operations, we propose a clustering-based framework that seeks to extract, model, and characterize the control actions of air traffic controllers when managing aircraft within the immediate vicinity of an airport. Toward achieving our goal, we begin by developing and applying a hidden Markov model to identify and extract heading changes within aircraft trajectories. Identification of these heading changes allows for translating spatially defined trajectories into variable-length strings describing executed lateral maneuvers resulting from the control actions of air traffic controllers. The trajectory strings are then compared and clustered using edit-distance metrics in combination with the -medoids clustering algorithm. Taken together, each step forms a consistent framework for modeling and understanding trajectories in the context of control actions of air traffic controllers. The proposed modeling and clustering framework also enables identification of anomalous and potentially disruptive decisions when managing aircraft. Through application on a set of historical trajectories at Washington National Airport, we are able to demonstrate that the proposed framework is able to successfully overcome shortfalls associated with traditional clustering techniques.

Resilience, Grit, and Stress Mindset as Predictors of Air Traffic Control Training Success

Air traffic controllers are responsible for the safe and efficient flow of air traffic. The safety-critical nature of the job calls for understanding the psychological characteristics related to success, particularly those that promote adaptive responses in the face of stress and challenge. Several non-cognitive aptitudes describe one’s capacity to bounce back or persevere under task demands. This study investigated if resilience, grit, and stress mindset were predictive of controller training success and differentiated successful and unsuccessful trainees. Findings suggest that these aptitudes did not significantly differ between trainees and accounted for only a small amount of incremental validity, though range restriction may have attenuated the results.

Метод адаптації самоспрямованого навчання майбутніх авіадиспетчерів до їх стильових особливостей для автоматизованої системи адаптивної передтренажерної підготовки

The subject matter of the article is the characteristics of learning styles of future air traffic controllers' practical learning at the basic training stage for the appropriate individual learning style formation. Besides, this study focuses on the adaptation processes of the future air traffic controllers' professional learning activities based on self-directed learning, conducted with the use of synthetic training devices in a pre-simulator training form, to the style preferences of students. The goal of the study is a method for adapting the future air traffic controllers' self-directed learning to the style characteristics of students during their pre-simulator training based on the proposed two-generic complex model of learning styles. The tasks: to explore some modern approaches to adaptive learning, taking into account the student’ style characteristics using computer-based learning systems and analyze the main models of learning styles; to develop a comprehensive model of learning styles for the future air traffic controllers' adaptive pre-simulator training and identify the key features characteristic of each style component in the context of future air traffic controllers' practical self-directed learning to make recommendations to avoid choosing inappropriate variants to implement individual learning strategies at the level of particular learning activities according to their inherent parameters of learning styles; to develop a general optimization model of adaptive learning to provide guarantees of the target practical skills level achievement by the future air traffic controller during a certain training cycle by adapting the content of the relevant individual learning strategies (selection of learning actions) to the students' style characteristics; to develop a conceptual model for adapting the future air traffic controllers' self-directed learning to their individual learning styles. The methods used are analysis, set and graph theory, optimization theory and mathematical modeling The following results were obtained. The presented conceptual model of adapting the future air traffic controllers' training activities to their style preferences based on self-directed learning can be applied in adaptive pre-simulator training, while providing the basis for determining the students' style characteristics to apply them at the stage of air traffic controller training in the "self-directed learning" mode". Conclusions. The scientific novelty of the results obtained is as follows: for the first time, a model of future air traffic controllers' individual learning styles was developed, unlike the existing ones it considers the specifics of air traffic controllers' pre-simulator and simulator training and covers the students' individual typological characteristics in a wide range: from cognitive to reflective style dimensions. The presented complex two-generic model of learning styles systematically combines two levels of adaptation of learning activities to the students' style preferences – the level of development of professional competencies and the level of development of self-directed learning skills.

КОМУНІКАТИВНА ВЗАЄМОДІЯ ВИКЛАДАЧА І КУРСАНТА В ПРОЦЕСІ ФОРМУВАННЯ КУЛЬТУРИ ПРОФЕСІЙНОГО МОВЛЕННЯ У ЗАКЛАДІ ЛЬОТНОЇ ВИЩОЇ ОСВІТИ

The article reveals the peculiarities of the dialogical form of communication in the process of foreign language training in the institution of higher flight education. This article notes that a direct realization of professional communication of the air traffic controller in the workplace is performed via radio exchange. Civil aviation radio communication is an act of speech interaction, the exchange of professional information between the aircraft crew and ground control services and/or other aircraft, carried out through high-quality communication channels. The content of such communication is determined by the real circumstances in the ATC area, which are expressed in graphic and audiovisual form on the screens of instruments and consoles. The article also mentions that in the organization of the educational process, in particular, today and in the training of future air traffic controllers, as a way to exchange these messages often use one-way communication. Thus, the informational side of learning is preferred and procedurally underestimated is the fact that students quickly assimilate ready-made knowledge and the inability to independently acquire and use it. Such a monologue hinders the individualization of learning, taking into account the personal beginnings of the student and his self-realization, it does not correspond to the communicative component of modern life. The article also pays attention to the fact that radio exchange presupposes the presence of two parties - participants in radio exchange, which are the crew commander on the air side, and on the ground side - the controllers of interacting air traffic control points. The relations between the communicating participants are determined by the established rules of radio exchange. Among the two communicators, the representative of the control service is the main one, because it is he who transmits instructions on board the aircraft and monitors the movement of the aircraft; yes, communicators have their own functions in dialogue.

Метод адаптивної передтренажерної підготовки авіадиспетчерів на засадах самоспрямованого навчання

The subject matter of the article is the processes of self-directed learning (SDL) skill formation for air traffic controllers at the pre-simulator training stage to acquire competence for the purposeful mastery of their professional knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as the ability for self-organization, personal, and professional self-improvement, which will contribute to their successful professional development and continuous professional development throughout their lives. The existing SDL sub-competencies will enable the air traffic controller to use them in the simulator training in self-regulation mode. The article develops an adaptive SDL method for an air traffic controller in the pre-simulator training stage. The tasks: to describe the basic principles of SDL for air traffic controllers; to develop a cyclical SDL model for pre-simulator training of air traffic controllers; to build a conceptual model of the system of air traffic controller pre-simulator training based on SDL and an adaptation model as the main component of the automated system of adaptive pre-simulator training of air traffic controllers. The methods used are analysis, comparison, and synthesis; system analysis; graphic and object modeling; decomposition methods and graph theory. The following results were obtained. The cyclic model of SDL presented in the paper is the basis for the developed conceptual model of the system of air traffic controller pre-simulator training, based on the principles and elements of SDL. The considered adaptation model can be applied in the automated system of pre-simulator training of air traffic controllers. Conclusions. The scientific novelty of the results obtained is as follows: the proposed approach to the adaptive pre-simulator training of air traffic controllers will optimize the process of such training not only in sense of improving the quality of the training itself in the formation of professional competencies but also in terms of developing special cognitive and metacognitive skills, making the pre-simulator training itself indeed signs of adaptation, considering the individual preferences of the student in the strategic and tactical management of their learning.

Automatic repetition instruction generation for air traffic control training using multi-task learning with an improved copy network

To eliminate the need for human pseudo-pilots in air traffic controller training, a multi-task framework with a copy mechanism is proposed to automatically generate a repetition instruction, which can greatly reduce human and device resources. The proposed framework is implemented using a sequence-to-sequence architecture and is optimized through multi-task learning, including text instruction understanding (TIU) and repetition instruction generation (RIG). In the proposed framework, a shared encoder is designed to learn the representations from the input sequence. Two task-specific attention modules are proposed to extract task-specific features, and different decoders are applied to generate the TIU and RIG outputs. The TIU module provides both word- and sentence-level implicit semantic representations through slot filling and intent detection tasks. In the decoding procedure of the RIG task, the slot context vector is regarded as an additional input used to solve the problem of ambivalent words. Simultaneously, an improved copy network based on multi-task learning is proposed to consider the correlations between the input instruction and the output repetition in the RIG module. To avoid a loss imbalance for the TIU and RIG tasks, the gradient normalization algorithm is applied to learn the loss weights automatically by adjusting the loss gradient. Finally, the proposed framework was trained and evaluated using a real-world air traffic control corpus. The experiment results demonstrate that the proposed framework significantly outperforms other state-of-the-art methods for the RIG task, achieving a novel integrated metric of 97.19%.

Optimal Planning of Professional Training for Air Traffic Controllers

Optimal Planning of Professional Training for Air Traffic Controllers

ІННОВАЦІЙНІ ТЕХНОЛОГІЇ СИТУАТИВНОГО МОДЕЛЮВАННЯ В ІНШОМОВНІЙ ПІДГОТОВЦІ МАЙБУТНІХ АВІАЦІЙНИХ ФАХІВЦІВ

The article deals with innovative simulation technologies as forms of quasi-professional activity used in foreign language training of future aviation specialists in order to achieve a sufficient level of their communicative competence. It has been proved that simulation technologies or role-plays are ones of the best ways to organize communicative studying and the most common forms of active learning, means and methods of preparation and adaptation to professional activities and social contacts. It goes without saying that role-play as a form of quasi-professional activity, allows intensifying the educational, cognitive and communicative activities of students, because the structure of future professional activities of aviation specialists are reproduced in the game educational model the best. The essence of role-play, stages of gaming models’ implementation and its importance for professional profile of aviation specialists have been described in the article. It should be noted that the content of role-plays depends on the stage of professional studying. The usage of real professional activities’ algorithms in routine, non-routine and emergency situations is of great importance. Highlighted main requirements to role-plays conducting, defined tasks, time management, game conditions, stages of the role-play have been reflected in the example of role-play, based on air crash investigations, the purpose of which is the formation of future aviation specialists’ communicative skills. We have come to conclusion that innovative simulation technologies are used in foreign language training of future pilots and air traffic controllers in order to achieve a sufficient level of their communicative skills. The use of role-plays, as ones of the forms of interactive teaching methods, enriches the vocabulary of applicants for higher education with foreign language vocabulary, promotes the acquisition of foreign language skills in situations as close as possible to reality and allows the formation of future aviation specialists’ foreign language communicative competence. Key words: aviation specialist, interactive technologies, communicative skills, Aviation English, role-play.

Service Quality and Efficiency-Oriented Training Design in Air Traffic Management

The main objective of the air traffic control (ATC) services is to ensure safe, efficient, and expeditious air traffic flow within an airspace or aerodrome according to international rules and regulations. Despite, the development of various automation systems to keep up with these objectives, air traffic control services still rely on radio-telephony (RT) communication which requires exchange of instructions and readbacks between air traffic controllers (ATCOs) and pilots. Although various studies indicate that the less number of instructions are correlated with less a workload and better quality of air traffic services, this is no always so, especially for the high traffic levels at which more instructions are required to maintain safe separation and efficient air traffic flow. Number of instructions can also differentiate depending on the characteristics of airspace and the type of air traffic control (area, approach or aerodrome). In order to obtain a broader insight regarding the quality of service including the air traffic and airspace characteristics, we need to include the effects of flight efficiency in the analysis. This study aims to explore correlation between the quality of service and flight efficiency based on real-time air traffic simulation experiments done on ATCO trainees in ATCOSIMA project. The experiments were carried out on two groups of trainees. The first group had only formal ATC training background while the second group went under an additional training focused on the flight efficiency and the service quality in addition to their formal training background. During the experiments, number of instructions per flight was collected as the indicator of quality of service while the total completion time of flights were collected as the indicator of the flight efficiency. The results of the analysis indicated that the number of instructions was decreased with the additional training but no significant change was observed in the flight completion time. A moderately significant correlation was also observed between the average number of instructions per aircraft and the completion time. In conclusion, a new training method focused on flight efficiency in addition to the formal training improve the quality of service and efficiency level of trainees. The findings of the study can provide important insights for the development of ATCO training and assessment. For the future work, the analysis can be expended for more efficiency indicators including effectiveness of trajectories and environmental impacts.

A Deep Learning Framework of Autonomous Pilot Agent for Air Traffic Controller Training

In this work, a deep learning-based framework is proposed to implement an autonomous pilot agent (APA), which serves as a human pseudo-pilot to assist air traffic controller (ATCO) training. A novel paradigm, including speech recognition, language understanding, pilot repetition generation (PRG), and text-to-speech (TTS), is designed to formulate the framework pipeline, which also incorporates a simulation system interface. We mainly focus on the PRG and TTS models to address the ATC specificities in this work. The neural architecture is proposed to generate the text repetition instruction by using a sequence-to-sequence text mapping. The Transformer block is improved to implement a high-efficient TTS model, in which the nonautoregressive mechanism is applied to achieve the parallel synthesis. A dedicated phoneme vocabulary is designed to cope with the multilingual issue in the ATC domain and address the out-of-vocabulary problem. With the APA framework, a virtual training mode is proposed to complete the training task without the limitation of time and location. Experimental results on a real-world dataset show that the proposed APA framework replaces the human pilot with considerable high confidence in a real-time manner during the simulation training. Most importantly, the APA framework and the virtual training system are able to cope with the dilemma of physical attendance (like COVID-19) and improve the equipment utilization capacity for the ATCO training.

Automatic Speech Recognition for Air Traffic Control Communications

A significant fraction of communications between air traffic controllers and pilots is through speech, via radio channels. Automatic transcription of air traffic control (ATC) communications has the potential to improve system safety, operational performance, and conformance monitoring, and to enhance air traffic controller training. We present an automatic speech recognition model tailored to the ATC domain that can transcribe ATC voice to text. The transcribed text is used to extract operational information such as call-sign and runway number. The models are based on recent improvements in machine learning techniques for speech recognition and natural language processing. We evaluate the performance of the model on diverse datasets.

RUNWAY INCURSIONS IN NORWAY 2009-2019: A CASE STUDY OF EXTENDED INVESTIGATION REPORTS

Abstract: The aim of the present study is to examine case studies from extended investigations of runway incursions in Norway from 2009-2019. Runway incursions involves an incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle or person on the runway and represents a relatively frequent threat to safety in the aviation industry. A content analysis and classification of the extended investigation reports (N=7) revealed 42 explanatory factors that could be condensed into four categories related to perception, procedural errors, memory and decision-making. When mapped onto the theoretical framework of situational awareness about 70% of the explanatory factors were related to misperception of information, improper comprehension of information or incorrect projection of future actions, respectively. The present study suggests that situational awareness can serve as a useful theoretical framework to identify deficits in human factors associated with runway incursion incidents. The results from this study contributes to inform investigation into aviation hazards and training of air traffic controllers.

Comparative Analysis of the Measured and Extrapolated Wind Shear Distributions at Murtala Mohammed and Port Harcourt International Airports, Nigeria

The persistent gory incidents, accidents, loss of huge amount of money and outcry by the aviation industry for accurate weather observation and forecast have been of utmost worry to so many researchers. In a bid to curbing these aviation weather challenges, researchers have discovered that wind shear impacts greatly on flight operations in the airports, and are working towards ameliorating the effects. This study analyzed the distribution of measured and extrapolated wind shear at Murtala Mohammed and Port Harcourt International Airports, Nigeria. The annual time series secondary data used for this study were sourced from Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) at Murtala Mohammed and Port Harcourt International Airports and Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET). Power Law Model was used to extrapolate wind shear at 20m above ground level to 50m and 100m above ground level for the both airports. The data were compiled and presented in tables and charts for easy understanding and further analysis. The statistical techniques employed in achieving the research target were descriptive statistics (such as mean, standard deviations, coefficient of variation and charts). The study shows that wind shear increases with altitude at the study areas due to decrease in frictional resistance which is more pronounced close to the ground. A similarity in the distribution pattern of wind shear at 20m, 50m and 100m above ground level at Murtala Mohammed International Airport was revealed by the study. The same similarity in the distribution pattern was also revealed at Port Harcourt International Airport. Evidently, the study reveals some temporal variations in the mean and standard deviation of wind shear in the study areas. The study also reveals based on the effects of wind shear and its resultant flight delays, diversions and cancellations that Port Harcourt International Airport with overall higher coefficient of variation (CV) is considered safer for flight landing. The study therefore, based on its findings, recommends subsequent training and retraining of Meteorologists, Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers on wind shear and related weather issues. The work also recommends that more studies should be carried out by the students and researchers on wind shear. Keywords: Wind Shear, Comparative Analysis, Measured, Extrapolated, Distributions DOI: 10.7176/JEES/11-5-06 Publication date: May 31 st 2021

Development Of Air Traffic Control Simulator System Applied In Education And Training

Air traffic control simulation system has become familiar in developed countries. Moreover, in Vietnam, the demand for air traffic control systems is increasing due to the boom of the civil aviation industry. However, there is any research or development on this system. The Northern and Southern Flight Management Companies all import control simulation systems at a very high cost. Many other flight management companies also have a high demand for this system, including military units. This demand prompted the research team to find a solution to build an air traffic control simulation system in accordance with domestic training needs. Based on individual open source simulation software with some basic features, the team has successfully built an aerodrome control simulation system that recreates the visually appealing 3D visualization used in training of air traffic controllers.