Air TrafficAirway Facilities Human Factors Research Program

1
Air Traffic/Airway Facilities Human Factors
Research Program

• Dino Piccione
• ATO-P
• Human Factors Research and Engineering Division
• May 10, 2004

2
Overview

• Program organization
• Acquisition Support
• Research partners
• 04 Research projects

3
Program Description

• Support the Air Traffic Organization (ATO)
  mission through Air Traffic (AT) and Airway
  Facilities (AF) Human Factors Research
• Address Human Factors aspects of ATC including
  system design to assure safe and efficient
  operation
• HF aspects of ATC Safety (e.g., Operational
  Errors)
• HF aspects of Capacity (1.5X, 2X, 3X?)
• Maintain performance of critical FAA AT
  occupational specialties
• Selection
• Retention (e.g., Age 56 retirement)
• Typical year has around 27 projects

4
Challenge For The Future

• How does the ATC system handle 2X or 3X todays
  traffic load?
• The human element in the system will be the
  limiting factor.

5
Organization

• Research Program Management ATO-P
• Research Performers
• Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI)
• Tech Center Human Factors Lab
• Volpe
• CSSI/Titan
• Grants/CRA (e.g., MIT, SJSU)
• Currently externally funded
• Research Requirements
• Technical Community Requirement Groups (TCRG)
  articulate the needs
• Research Sponsors
• 14 sponsoring organizations

6
Linkage to Acquisition

• Human Factors Acquisition Working Group
• primary conduit to maintain contact with system
  development and emerging research needs
• HF practitioners in the acquisition community are
  viewed as a primary consumer of research products
• HF practitioners are invited to participate in
  the TCRGs as sponsors to articulate requirements

7
Linkage To Other HF Research Programs

• Inter-Agency Research Management Team provides
  interaction with other researchers
• NASA
• MITRE
• MIT/Lincoln Labs
• Inter-agency Human Factors working group will
  meet in July
• Meeting theme is Building An Interlocking Human
  Factors Research Program

8
Phases in Research Lifecycle
Phase 1 Requirement Definition
Phase 3 Implementation
Phase 4 Knowledge Transfer
Phase 2 Decision Process
AT Systems Development
Tasking To Performer
HF Research Group
Decision if Product fulfills Research need
NAS Target System Description
CONOPS
OEP
JPDO
ATO-P Research Program
Progress Reports
Place Product In FAA-HF Database
AF/AT Operational Need
Div. Budget
Reports are made Accessible to Public
ATO Budget
Sponsoring Organization
Future Research Planning
Users / Sponsors In-the-loop
FAA Budget Request
Update Practitioners
Appropriation
Formulation of Research Need
Research Product In Operational Context
Research Product
Finalized Research Requirement
9
Defining Research Requirements

• All research projects need linkage to a
  requirement
• Statement of Need
• Operational shortfall or knowledge gap in the
  human factors area that needs investigation
• Benefit in closing the shortfall or gap
• Description of desired product to satisfy the
  need
• Traceability to performance plans, Concept of
  Ops, etc.
• Sponsoring organization specified
• Schedule for major milestones including
  deliverable

10
Function of the AT TCRG

• Advocate a segment of the research program
• Coordinate research performed in a functional
  area
• Assess the value of each requirement
• Identify high priority projects
• Research Manager has responsibility for
• Define the program and projects from group output
  
• Determine research performer
• Match requirements to projects and performers via
  Program Descriptions
• Sponsors articulate/own the requirement and
  provide AT resources
• Performers provide methods for meeting the needs

11
Technical Community Representative Groups
Advanced AF Systems
Advanced AT Systems
Individual Team Performance

• AF CHI Standardization
• AF Workstation Integration

• En Route,TRACON, Tower, Oceanic Workstation
  Evolution
• Inter-operability of ATC tools
• Flight Data Handling
• ATC Display Complexity
• Human Factors Design Standard

• Reduce ATC operational errors (e.g., Janus)
• Reduce runway incursions
• Controller taskload and performance metrics
• ATC intra-team communications
• Employee Attitude Survey
• Shiftwork and fatigue

Personnel Selection

• Impact of Age on performance and policy
• Workforce planning
• Job/task analysis
• Workforce selection

12
FY 04 AT/AFHuman Factors RED
13
04 Human Factors Research

• Advanced AT Systems
• En Route workstation evolution
• Dynamic resectorization
• Integration of weather for TRACON controller
• Self-separation on final approach
• Collocation tool data analysis
• HF for Electronic Flight Data Handling
• ATC Display Complexity Model
• ATC Color Display Guidelines
• Identification of HF issue in future National Air
  Space (NAS) architecture
• Human Factors Design Standard update

14
04 Human Factors Research

• AF
• HF aspects of technology for productivity
  (wearable computers)
• HF design standards for alerts and alarms at
  maintenance workstations
• HF aspects of communication and coordination
  between maintainers and ATC operators
• Investigation of password alternatives for
  maintainers

15
04 Human Factors Research

• Individual and Team Performance
• Janus reporting and analysis tool for ATC
  operational errors
• Janus Flight and Janus Ground for runway
  incursions
• Operational error severity index
• AF fatigue countermeasures
• NATPRO on Intranet
• Employee Attitude Survey
• Intra-team communications and performance in AT
• Baseline development of verbal ATC communications
• Validation of ATC human performance metrics
• Intra-team communications in ATC towers
• Strategic human capital metrics

16
04 Human Factors Research

• Personnel Selection
• Age 56 Exceptional Controller criteria and
  metric development
• Workforce retirement and attritions model
• Controller selection test longitudinal validation
  
• Controller selection test parallel form
  development
• Job/Task analyses for selected AF occupations
• Individualized assessment of ATCS applicant
  temperament
• Assess existing supervisory and managerial
  selection process