AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER WORKLOAD EVALUATIONS FOR TERMINAL AIRSPACE CAPACITY ESTIMATION : 터미널 공역 용량 추정을 위한 항공 교통 관제사 업무량 부하 평가

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The Aviation and Air Transportation Industry is a developing industry that continues to grow at an exponential rate. This growth is attributed to immense technological advancements and constant research into increasing optimization of the air transportation. In turn, safety precautions equivalent to the magnitude of growth are required to ensure that air transportation remains safe. And thus, safety is a paramount aspect and necessity of the Aviation and Air Transportation Industry.
Among the various facilitators of Air Traffic Safety, an important one with a key role are the Air Traffic Controllers (ATCos). ATCos ought to make traffic control decisions promptly and swiftly to ensure traffic safety. They are responsible for numerous tasks and the rate at which these tasks are completed, and aircrafts safely guided through the various zones of the airspace to their destination, influences controllers’ workload. Hence, decision-making is undoubtedly a crucial part of air traffic control with a direct impact on Air Traffic Controllers’ workload.
This study focuses on workload evaluation for terminal capacity estimation. There are multiple ways that can be applied to estimate terminal capacity and the methods chosen in this research utilize Human-in-the-loop Simulation to assess Air Traffic Controller’s workload through NASA task load index (TLX), the use of the encephalogram (EEG) and Well Clear Score (WCS) with air traffic conditions of varying traffic complexity and density. The results based on these methods are analyzed and used to investigate the most suitable ATCo workload indicators, the factors that influence workload, and the application of these results for increasing or decreasing capacity relative to the ATCo’s capabilities.

국문 초록 (Abstract)

항공 운송 산업은 기하급수적인 속도로 성장하고 있는 산업이다. 이러한 성장은 항공 운송의 안전과 기술발전, 운송 산업의 성장 최적화를 증가시키기 위한 연구에 기인하게 된다. 특히, 항공 산업의 안전을 위해서는 성장의 크기에 상응하는 안전 예방 조치가 필요할 것이다.
항공 교통 안전의 핵심적인 역할을 하는 것은 항공 교통 관제사(ATCos)이다. 항공 교통 관제사는 항공기가 출발지부터 목적지까지 안전하게 도착할 수 있도록 신속하고 안전하게 항공기의 운항을 통제하여야한다. 이러한 항공기의 통제를 위해서는 수 많은 관제사의 업무 중, 의사 결정(decision-making)이 중요한 요인이 될 것이다.
본 연구는 단말기 용량 추정을 통해 항공 교통 관제사의 업무량을 추정하는 것에 초점을 맞추고 있다. 단말기를 통해 관제사의 업무량을 추정하는 방법은 여러 가지가 있으나, 본 연구에서는 HITL(Human-in-the-loop Simulation) 실험을 통해 NASA 업무 부하 지수(TLX), 뇌파(EEG) 및 WCS(Well Clear Score)를 분석하여 관제사의 업무량을 추정한다.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Chapter 1 Introduction 1
• 1.1 Goal and Research Question 1
• 1.2 Background 1
• Chapter 2 Literature Review and Theoretical Modelling 3
• 2.1 Terminal capacity estimation, evaluation, and indicators 3
• 2.2 Literature review of workload evaluations 4
• 2.2.1 Air Traffic Control Workload 5
• 2.2.2 Subjective Assessment 7
• 2.2.3 Physiological Assessment 8
• Chapter 3 Methodology and Experimental Design 16
• 3.1 Human-in-the-loop Simulation 16
• 3.1.1 Simulation procedure 17
• 3.1.2 Simulation environment 18
• 3.1.3 ATS and complexity 21
• 3.2 NASA Task Load Index 23
• 3.2.1 Post simulation survey 23
• 3.2.2 Post experiment survey 23
• 3.2.3 Weighted Workload evaluation 24
• 3.2.4 Predicted results. 24
• 3.3 Electroencephalogram 25
• 3.3.1 Equipment 25
• 3.3.2 Electrode Placement 26
• 3.3.3 Welch’s PSD 28
• 3.3.4 Results acquisition 28
• Chapter 4 Results 30
• 4.1 Electroencephalogram results 30
• 4.1.1 Av brain wave analysis 30
• 4.1.2 Max brain wave analysis 31
• 4.1.3 Workload Indicators 32
• 4.1.4 ATS workload indicator assessments 34
• 4.2 NASA Task Load Index Results 35
• 4.2.1 Weighted Workload 35
• 4.2.2 TLX Weighting Factors 39
• 4.2.3 TLX result analysis 41
• 4.3 Terminal capacity Estimation 44
• Chapter 5 Results explanation and comparison 46
• 5.1 Results explanation 46
• 5.2 Results comparison 47
• Chapter 6 Conclusions 50
• 6.1 Implications and lessons learned from this study. 50
• 6.2 Future work 51
• REFERENCES 53
• ABSTRACT 57
• APPENDIX A - NASA TLX Post ATS Questionnaire 58
• APPENDIX B - NASA TLX Post Experiment Questionnaire 59
• APPENDIX C - NASA TLX Post ATS Questionnaire Extra Questions 60
• APPENDIX D - Simulation Air Traffic Scenes 61