Workplace design for Remote air traffic control

Case Study "Man-Machine-Interaction"

The German Air Traffic Control and Human Factors Consult conducted a field research concerned with the development of a remote tower facility for small and regional airports. The analysis of gaze behavior of tower controllers conducted with SMI mobile eye tracking technology was a key method used within a user-centered approach.

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Challenge

Multiple approaches for remote tower control workplaces have been developed for large international airports.  However, a standardized workplace concept designed for remote control at smaller or regional airports faces unique challenges: the heterogeneity of equipment and infrastructure and a large portion of hard-to-schedule traffic.

Solution

In order to develop requirements for a new controller workplace, the German Air Traffic Control and the usability consultancy Human-Factors-Consult GmbH (HFC) performed a workplace analysis at three regional German airports. The analysis of gaze behavior of tower controllers conducted with SMI headmounted mobile eye tracking technology was a key method within this user-centered approach.

CONCLUSIONs

Besides the traffic volume, gaze behavior seems to depend on the technical inventory present in the tower. Information and assistance systems are looked at frequently when available at the workplace. If equipment is scarce, the view out of the tower window is the major source of information. In order to establish processes of air traffic control independent from visual surveillance,  the development of special instruments with sensor-based data is essential.

benefit

Based on the workplace analysis, a catalog of requirements for the new controller workplace was developed. Eye tracking data was used to weight the importance of pieces of visual information for air traffic control tasks.

SMI Eye tracking

The SMI HED mobile eye tracking solution provided data on the gaze behavior of tower controllers.

 

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