A quantum-inspired model for human-automation trust in air traffic control derived from functional magnetic resonance imaging

Abstract

With a greater proliferation of automation tools in the domain of Air Traffic Management due to exponential growth in air traffic, human factors, and more specifically, trust, becomes a crucial component of Air Traffic Controller (ATCO)-automation teams. An attempt to better represent trust behaviours in ATCOs was made by juxtaposing two philosophies of trust using the principles of superposition and complementarity from quantum mechanics. Neuroimaging evidence of this simultaneous concurrence was demonstrated with use of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data. The robustness in this proposed model is higher due to the use of objective data to explain ATCO trusting behaviour under uncertainty. This is an improvement on current models that are context-dependent and based on subjective data.