A study of conflict detection to assess performance of air traffic controller

Abstract

The role of Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs) is to ensure the safety and efficiency of aircrafts in the sector they are responsible for. Global freight traffic is expected to increase at an annual rate of 3.9 percent. With rising rapid demands in air traffic, it may pose significant challenges to the controllers. Despite automation efforts to aid ATCOs in monitoring the traffic situation and decision-making process, they may still lose their situation awareness. In the context of complex operational environment, situation awareness of ATCO is extremely important as it is related to their knowledge, skills and understanding of the current state and dynamic of a system. Therefore, the situation awareness of the ATCOs is of great significance to their performance. The objective of this project was to develop a conflict detection index as a factor to assess the performance of ATCOs. The conflict detection index determines the sequence of the aircrafts which are more likely to collide or violate minimum separation standards. Experiments in the form of simulation were taken up by participants, which generated a conflict index based on their actions. After which, the results of the conflict index were used to evaluate the situational awareness and knowledge of the participants by comparing the actions made by the controller to the potential conflict sequence. Thus, providing the tool for the assessment of the participant performance.