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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2011

Trajectory Assessment and Modification Tools for Next Generation Air Traffic Management Operations

This paper reviews three Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) based high fidelity air traffic control human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulations, with a focus on the expected requirement of enhanced automated trajectory assessment and modification tools to support future air traffic flow management (ATFM) planning positions. The simulations were conducted at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Centers Airspace Operations Laboratory (AOL) in 2009 and 2010. The test airspace for all three simulations assumed the mid-term NextGenEn-Route high altitude environment utilizing high altitude sectors from the Kansas City and Memphis Air Route Traffic Control Centers. Trajectory assessment, modification and coordination decision support tools were developed at the AOL in order to perform future ATFM tasks. Overall tool usage results and user acceptability ratings were collected across three areas of NextGen operatoins to evaluate the tools. In addition to the usefulness and usability feedback, feasibility issues, benefits, and future requirements were also addressed. Overall, the tool sets were rated very useful and usable, and many elements of the tools received high scores and were used frequently and successfully. Tool utilization results in all three HITLs showed both user and system benefits including better airspace throughput, reduced controller workload, and highly effective communication protocols in both full Data Comm and mixed-equipage environments.

Brasil, Connie↗
NASA NTRS2015

The Effectiveness of a Route Crossing Tool in a Simulated New York Airspace

Congested airspace is the cause of many delays in the terminal area and these delays can have a ripple effect on the rest of a nation's airspace. The New York terminal area is an example of where this happens in the U. S. An important goal, therefore, is to increase the efficiency of operations in congested terminal airspace where possible. Modeling studies of arrival and departure flows have shown that sharing of arrival and departure airspace increases efficiency in terminal operations. One source of inefficiency in terminal operations is that departure aircraft are frequently held level under arrival flows when it would be more efficient to climb the departure aircraft earlier. A Route Crossing Tool was developed to help controllers climb Newark (EWR) departures to the south earlier by temporarily sharing airspace with arrivals coming into LaGuardia (LGA) from the south. Instead of flying under the arrivals, a departure to the south could climb earlier by flying through the arrival airspace if there was a suitable gap between arrivals. A Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) simulation was conducted in this environment which compared three tool conditions: Baseline (no tool), a Single Route Crossing tool in which one route through the arrival flow was evaluated for crossing, and a Multi-Route Crossing tool in which five parallel routes were evaluated. In all conditions, the departures could be held level under the arrival flow. The results showed that controllers climbed a higher proportion of departures in the Multi-Route tool condition than in the other two conditions, with a higher proportion of departures climbed in smaller gaps and in front of trailing arrivals. The controllers indicated that the Multi-Route and Single Route tools helped them estimate distances more accurately and rated safety, workload, and coordination in the simulation as acceptable.

terminal airspace↗
NASA NTRS2018

Evaluation of Usability and Workload with Paper Strips as Compared to Virtual Flight Strips Used for Ramp Operations

This paper describes an experiment designed to compare the use of paper strips with the use of a new user interface, the Ramp Traffic Console (RTC), designed for use by ramp controllers to be used in place of paper strips. A Human-In-the-Loop (HITL) experiment was performed as the fifth study in a series of six HITL simulation experiments designed to evaluate a concept that provided advisories to the users. The RTC was designed to be used as a Decision Support Tool (DST) that provided advisories to ramp controllers regarding metering or pushback such that most of the delay was taken at the gate to save fuel and emissions. In addition to being a DST, an added benefit of the RTC is that it can provide real-time updates of flight data, airport and airspace status to the controller including Traffic Management Initiatives (TMI). The RTC was designed as new user interface that displays virtual strips on a terminal map drawn on a 27-inch touch screen monitor. The RTC was used in some conditions of the experiment by ramp controllers in place of paper strips and paper maps in the HITL environment. In other conditions the controllers were given paper strips and paper maps similar to what they currently use at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT). The study described here, evaluated the use of the virtual strips displayed on the RTC as compared to the use of paper strips and paper map, using current ramp tower controllers at CLT as participants. The research question being asked was - How does management of ramp traffic affect user workload and usability ratings while using RTC to manage traffic in the ramp verses using paper strips? Workload for our purposes is defined by four components of the NASA-TLX (Task Load Index). Usability was assessed with two sets of usability questions - One set of usability questions addressed traffic management performance and the other set addressed issues of resources and efficiency. Both Post Run and Post Study questionnaire responses were gathered and the results were analyzed to assess controller workload and usability ratings under both conditions, virtual strips shown on RTC and Paper Strips. The results indicate that controllers perceived lower workload while using virtual strips displayed on RTC to manage ramp traffic. Usability ratings for Traffic management performance questions are lower in the virtual strip/RTC condition than in the paper strip condition showing a preference for RTC over Paper. Usability ratings for Resources and efficiency questions show mixed results. Additionally, the Post Study Questions show preference for RTC over paper strips. Results of this data analysis will be presented in this paper. This DST evaluation was an important step in researching and improving the tool, which was planned to be deployed in the field.

Aviation Decision Support Tools↗
NASA NTRS2016

Operational Characteristics Identification and Simulation Model Verification for Incheon International Airport

Incheon International Airport (ICN) is one of the hub airports in East Asia. Airport operations at ICN have been growing more than 5% per year in the past five years. According to the current airport expansion plan, a new passenger terminal will be added and the current cargo ramp will be expanded in 2018. This expansion project will bring 77 new stands without adding a new runway to the airport. Due to such continuous growth in airport operations and future expansion of the ramps, it will be highly likely that airport surface traffic will experience more congestion, and therefore, suffer from efficiency degradation. There is a growing awareness in aviation research community of need for strategic and tactical surface scheduling capabilities for efficient airport surface operations. Specific to ICN airport operations, a need for A-CDM (Airport - Collaborative Decision Making) or S-CDM(Surface - Collaborative Decision Making), and controller decision support tools for efficient air traffic management has arisen since several years ago. In the United States, there has been independent research efforts made by academia, industry, and government research organizations to enhance efficiency and predictability of surface operations at busy airports. Among these research activities, the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA) developed and tested by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is a decision support tool to provide tactical advisories to the controllers for efficient surface operations. The effectiveness of SARDA concept, was successfully verified through the human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulations for both spot release and runway operations advisories for ATC Tower controllers of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) in 2010 and 2012, and gate pushback advisories for the ramp controller of Charlotte/Douglas International Airport (CLT) in 2014. The SARDA concept for tactical surface scheduling is further enhanced and is being integrated into NASA's Airspace Technology Demonstration - 2 (ATD-2) project for technology demonstration of Integrated Arrival/Departure/Surface (ADS) operations at CLT. This study is a part of the international research collaboration between KAIA (Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement)/KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute) and NASA, which is being conducted to validate the effectiveness of SARDA concept as a controller decision support tool for departure and surface management of ICN. This paper presents the preliminary results of the collaboration effort. It includes investigation of the operational environment of ICN, data analysis for identification of the operational characteristics of the airport, construction and verification of airport simulation model using Surface Operations Simulator and Scheduler (SOSS), NASA's fast-time simulation tool.

scheduling↗
NASA NTRS2016

Operational Characteristics Identification and Simulation Model Verification for Incheon International Airport

Incheon International Airport (ICN) is one of the hub airports in East Asia. Airport operations at ICN have been growing more than 5 percent per year in the past five years. According to the current airport expansion plan, a new passenger terminal will be added and the current cargo ramp will be expanded in 2018. This expansion project will bring 77 new stands without adding a new runway to the airport. Due to such continuous growth in airport operations and future expansion of the ramps, it will be highly likely that airport surface traffic will experience more congestion, and therefore, suffer from efficiency degradation. There is a growing awareness in aviation research community of need for strategic and tactical surface scheduling capabilities for efficient airport surface operations. Specific to ICN airport operations, a need for A-CDM (Airport - Collaborative Decision Making) or S-CDM (Surface - Collaborative Decision Making), and controller decision support tools for efficient air traffic management has arisen since several years ago. In the United States, there has been independent research efforts made by academia, industry, and government research organizations to enhance efficiency and predictability of surface operations at busy airports. Among these research activities, the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA) developed and tested by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is a decision support tool to provide tactical advisories to the controllers for efficient surface operations. The effectiveness of SARDA concept, was successfully verified through the human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulations for both spot release and runway operations advisories for ATC Tower controllers of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) in 2010 and 2012, and gate pushback advisories for the ramp controller of Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (CLT) in 2014. The SARDA concept for tactical surface scheduling is further enhanced and is being integrated into NASA's Airspace Technology Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) project for technology demonstration of Integrated Arrival-Departure-Surface (IADS) operations at CLT. This study is a part of the international research collaboration between KAIA (Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement), KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute) and NASA, which is being conducted to validate the effectiveness of SARDA concept as a controller decision support tool for departure and surface management of ICN. This paper presents the preliminary results of the collaboration effort. It includes investigation of the operational environment of ICN, data analysis for identification of the operational characteristics of the airport, construction and verification of airport simulation model using Surface Operations Simulator and Scheduler (SOSS), NASA's fast-time simulation tool.

surface operations analysis↗
DOE OSTI2024

Scalability of Real-time Distribution Models

This work will focus on developing the capabilities and validating the models for a sub transmission network with multiple feeders and microgrids. To achieve this scale of Hardware-in-the-loop (HitL) simulation, it is necessary to federate and collaborate. The work aims to design the large-scale feeder models to allow federation with complementary testbeds in the future. The feeder would be designed to be reconfigurable to put the system into a variety of modes. Aggregators models will be included in each distribution network’s federate to take control actions and interact with the management systems. Lastly, the feeder model will support large scale resilience studies involving complex Distributed Energy Resources (DER) controls, microgrid studies and emulation of complex data flows in future grid architectures.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS2011

A Human-in-the-Loop Evaluation of Multi-Sector Planning in Mixed Equipage Airspace (MSP III)

A human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulation was conducted in May 2010 to determine the feasibility and value 01 conducting multi-sector planning (MSP) operations in a mixed equipage environment. Aircraft were categorized as equipped or unequipped based on the presence or absence of an air-ground data communications (Data Comm) capability for receiving auto-loadable clearances and transfer of communication messages from the air navigation service provider (ANSP). The purpose of the study was to determine the feasibility and possible benefits of introducing multi-sector planning in a mixed equipage context, or whether Data Comm equipage was required for MSP operations. Each test scenario presented one of three different equipage levels to the controllers (10%, 50% or 90% equipped aircraft), so that the operational impact of different equipage levels could be observed. Operational feasibility assessment addressed two related questions: (1) are MSP operations feasible for unequipped aircraft, and (2) are they feasible in a mixed equipage context. Similarly, two categories of potential benefits were explored: (1) system performance improvements (e.g., throughput, workload) associated with MSP at different equipage levels, and (2) the possibility of providing differential service for equipage through MSP operations. Tool requirements (for both planning and controller stations), as well as planning and coordination procedures - within facility (traffic management unit/operational area) and within sector (R-Side/D-Side) - were two other topics addressed in the study. Overall, results suggested that MSP operations were feasible in a mixed equipage environment and that the tools were effective with both equipped and unequipped aircraft. Using the MSP tools, traffic management coordinators were able to manage controller task load, effectively balancing throughput with complexity and controller task load at each of the three equipage levels tested.

Smith, Nancy↗
NASA NTRS2012

SARDA HITL Preliminary Human Factors Measures and Analyses

Human factors data collected during the SARDA HITL Simulation Experiment include a variety of subjective measures, including the NASA TLX, questionnaire questions regarding situational awareness, advisory usefulness, UI usability, and controller trust. Preliminary analysis of the TLX data indicate that workload may not be adversely affected by use of the advisories, additionally, the controller's subjective ratings of the advisories may suggest acceptance of the tool.

Hyashi, Miwa↗
NASA NTRS2012

Comparison of Controller and Flight Deck Algorithm Performance During Interval Management with Dynamic Arrival Trees (STARS)

Managing the interval between arrival aircraft is a major part of the en route and TRACON controller s job. In an effort to reduce controller workload and low altitude vectoring, algorithms have been developed to allow pilots to take responsibility for, achieve and maintain proper spacing. Additionally, algorithms have been developed to create dynamic weather-free arrival routes in the presence of convective weather. In a recent study we examined an algorithm to handle dynamic re-routing in the presence of convective weather and two distinct spacing algorithms. The spacing algorithms originated from different core algorithms; both were enhanced with trajectory intent data for the study. These two algorithms were used simultaneously in a human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulation where pilots performed weather-impacted arrival operations into Louisville International Airport while also performing interval management (IM) on some trials. The controllers retained responsibility for separation and for managing the en route airspace and some trials managing IM. The goal was a stress test of dynamic arrival algorithms with ground and airborne spacing concepts. The flight deck spacing algorithms or controller managed spacing not only had to be robust to the dynamic nature of aircraft re-routing around weather but also had to be compatible with two alternative algorithms for achieving the spacing goal. Flight deck interval management spacing in this simulation provided a clear reduction in controller workload relative to when controllers were responsible for spacing the aircraft. At the same time, spacing was much less variable with the flight deck automated spacing. Even though the approaches taken by the two spacing algorithms to achieve the interval management goals were slightly different they seem to be simpatico in achieving the interval management goal of 130 sec by the TRACON boundary.

Battiste, Vernol↗
NASA NTRS2013

Evaluation of the Terminal Sequencing and Spacing System for Performance Based Navigation Arrivals

NASA has developed the Terminal Sequencing and Spacing (TSS) system, a suite of advanced arrival management technologies combining timebased scheduling and controller precision spacing tools. TSS is a ground-based controller automation tool that facilitates sequencing and merging arrivals that have both current standard ATC routes and terminal Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) routes, especially during highly congested demand periods. In collaboration with the FAA and MITRE's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD), TSS system performance was evaluated in human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulations with currently active controllers as participants. Traffic scenarios had mixed Area Navigation (RNAV) and Required Navigation Performance (RNP) equipage, where the more advanced RNP-equipped aircraft had preferential treatment with a shorter approach option. Simulation results indicate the TSS system achieved benefits by enabling PBN, while maintaining high throughput rates-10% above baseline demand levels. Flight path predictability improved, where path deviation was reduced by 2 NM on average and variance in the downwind leg length was 75% less. Arrivals flew more fuel-efficient descents for longer, spending an average of 39 seconds less in step-down level altitude segments. Self-reported controller workload was reduced, with statistically significant differences at the p less than 0.01 level. The RNP-equipped arrivals were also able to more frequently capitalize on the benefits of being "Best-Equipped, Best- Served" (BEBS), where less vectoring was needed and nearly all RNP approaches were conducted without interruption.

terminal sequencing↗
NASA NTRS2015

TASAR Certification and Operational Approval Requirements - Analyses and Results

This report documents the results of research and development work performed by Rockwell Collins in addressing the Task 1 objectives under NASA Contract NNL12AA11C. Under this contract Rockwell Collins provided analytical support to the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) in NASA's development of a Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR) flight deck Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) application for technology transition into operational use. The two primary objectives of this contract were for Rockwell Collins and the University of Iowa OPL to 1) perform an implementation assessment of TASAR toward early certification and operational approval of TASAR as an EFB application (Task 1 of this contract), and 2) design, develop and conduct two Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) simulation experiments that evaluate TASAR and the associated Traffic Aware Planner (TAP) software application to determine the situational awareness and workload impacts of TASAR in the flight deck, while also assessing the level of comprehension, usefulness, and usability of the features of TAP (Task 2 of this contract). This report represents the Task 1 summary report. The Task 2 summary report is provided in [0].

Koczo, Stefan, Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2015

ATM Technology Demonstration 1 (ATD-1) Project: Terminal Airspace Technologies for NextGen (Public)

This video highlights the human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulations conducted by the ATD-1 project and features visual elements developed for Traffic Management Advisor - Terminal Metering, Controller Managed Spacing, and Flight Deck Interval Management. The video content is fairly technical and intended for audiences that have some knowledge of air traffic management issues. This includes researchers and management from NASA, FAA, industry partners, and others interested in terminal metering, controller managed spacing, and interval management technologies. Please note that the media release only clears the video for peer audiences such as ATM conferences or as part of presentations to researchers.

Robinson, John E.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Integrated Demand Management: Minimizing Unanticipated Excessive Departure Delay while Ensuring Fairness from a Traffic Management Initiative

This paper introduces NASA's Integrated Demand Management (IDM) concept and presents the results from an early proof-of-concept evaluation and an exploratory experiment. An initial development of the concept was focused on integrating two systems - i.e. the FAA's newly deployed Traffic Flow Management System (TFMS) tool called the Collaborative Trajectory Options Program (CTOP) and the Time-Based Flow Management (TBFM) system with Extended Metering (XM) capabilities to manage projected heavy traffic demand into a capacity-constrained airport. A human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulation experiment was conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of the initial development of the concept by adapting it to an arrival traffic problem at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) during clear weather conditions. In this study, the CTOP was utilized to strategically plan the arrival traffic demand by controlling take-off times of both short- and long-haul flights (long-hauls specify aircraft outside TBFM regions and short-hauls specify aircraft within TBFM regions) in a way that results in equitable delays among the groups. Such strategic planning allows less airborne delay to occur within TBFM by feeding manageable long-haul traffic demand while reserving sufficient slots in the overhead streams for the short-haul departures. The manageable traffic demand indicates the TBFM scheduler assigns no more airborne delay than its assigned airspace is capable of absorbing. TBFM then uses its time-based metering capabilities to deliver the desirable throughput by tactically rescheduling the TBFM entered long-haul flights and short-haul departures. Additional research was also performed to explore use of Required Time of Arrival (RTA) capabilities as a potential control mechanism for the airborne flights to improve arrival traffic delivery accuracy of scheduled long-haul traffic demand. The study results show that both short- and long-haul flights received similar ground delays. In addition, there was a noticeable reduction in the total amount of excessive unanticipated last-minute ground delays, i.e. delays that are frequently imposed on the short-haul flight in current day operations due to saturation in the overhead stream, commonly referred to as 'double penalty'. Furthermore, the concept achieved the target throughput while minimizing the expected cost associated with overall delays in arrival traffic. Assessment of the RTA capabilities showed that there was indeed improvement of the scheduled entry times into TBFM regions by using RTA capabilities. However, with respect to reduction in delays incurred within TBFM, there was no observable benefit of improving the precision of long-haul flights entry times.

Collaborative Trajectory Options Program (CTOP)↗
NASA NTRS2017

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project: Terminal Operations HITL 1: Primary Results

This presentation covers the primary results of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project Terminal Operations Foundational Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) simulation. The study tasked 16 pilots (half with manned piloting experience, and the other half with unmanned piloting experience) with maintaining "well clear" from other traffic while performing three different types of approaches into the Santa Rosa airport. A detect and avoid (DAA) system was provided to pilots to assist their ability to manage separation. The DAA system used in this test conformed to the criteria defined by RTCA Special Committee 228 (SC-228) in their Phase 1 Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) for UAS intending to operate in the NAS. The Phase 1 system was not designed to account for terminal operations, focusing instead on en route operations. To account for this, three different alerting and guidance configurations were presently tested in order to determine their effect on pilots operating the system in the terminal area. Results indicated that pilots with the alerting and guidance condition that provided the least amount of assistance (fewer alert levels and guidance types) experienced slightly increased pilot response times and rates of losses of separation. Additional data is presented on the effects of approach type and descriptive data on pilot maneuver preferences and ATC interoperability.

terminal environmen↗
NASA NTRS2018

Impact of Different Trajectory Option Set Participation Levels within an Air Traffic Management Collaborative Trajectory Option Program

This paper presents the methodology and results of a Human-In-The-Loop (HITL) simulation study conducted in the Airspace Operations Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center. This study is a part of NASA's ongoing research into developing an Integrated Demand Management (IDM) concept, whose aim is to improve traffic flow management (TFM) by coordinating the FAA's strategic Traffic Flow Management System (TFMS) with its more tactical Time-Based Flow Management (TBFM) system. The purpose of TFM is to regulate air traffic demand so that it is delivered efficiently through constrained airspace resources without exceeding their capacity limits. The IDM concept leverages a new TFMS capability called the Collaborative Trajectory Options Program (CTOP) to strategically pre-condition traffic demand flowing into a TBFM-managed arrival environment, where TBFM is responsible for managing traffic tactically by generating precise arrival schedules. Unlike other TFM tools, CTOP gives flight operators the option of submitting a set of user-preferred alternative trajectories for each flight. CTOP can then use these trajectory option sets (or TOSs) to find user-preferred alternative routes to reduce demand on an overloaded resource. CTOP's effectiveness in redistributing demand is limited, however, by the availability of flights with alternative routes. The research presented in this paper focuses on evaluating the impact on TFM operations by varying the percentage of flights that submit a multiple-option TOS ('TOS participation levels'). Results show the impact on overall system performance and on the rerouted flights themselves. The simulation used a Newark (EWR) airport arrival scenario, with en route weather affecting traffic inbound from the west. Participants were asked to control each of the three arrival flows (north, west, and south) to meet their individual capacity constraints while simultaneously ensuring efficient utilization of the capacity at the destination airport. A large, permeable convective weather cell located southeast of Chicago severely reduced the capacity of the west flow. The study evaluated the impact of five different TOS participation levels on CTOP's ability to re-allocate traffic from the west and improve TFM performance in terms of delay assignment and traffic delivery rate to the airport. Overall, the results showed that increasing TOS submissions allowed the overall system delays to be reduced and fairly distributed among the three arrival flows, at the same time achieving the airport throughput rate. Moreover, it was found that aircraft who submitted a TOS saw a greater reduction in delay, even when they were assigned longer routes. This was particularly true when fewer aircraft submitted a TOS. The results confirm that the CTOP operations with higher TOS participation levels helped utilize the overall National Airspace System (NAS) resources as well as benefited the users who participated.

Yoo, Hyo-Sang↗
NASA NTRS2018

Methods to Reduce Communication Workload for UAM Operations

Implementation of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) operations, or air passenger transportation systems within densely populated metropolitan areas, seeks to mitigate increasing traffic congestion. However, the development and integration of UAM operations into the national airspace system comes with its own unique challenges, such as vehicle requirements, flight planning and scheduling, and coordination between UAM flights and air traffic controllers. In particular, verbal coordination will play an integral part in the determined success of UAM operations and its ability to meet projected high consumer demands. In order to meet demands and higher traffic volumes on UAM routes, verbal communication between the UAM pilot and controller must be streamlined to reduce the controller's workload while helping to maintain safety within a given airspace. One method of reducing verbal workload are Letters Of Agreement (LOAs) that outline responsibilities and procedures for operations in an airspace. These LOAs will specify the operations, procedures, and routes for UAM flights. The proposed study will examine the usability of two route formatting styles for LOAs; (i) Verbal route descriptions and (ii) Tower En Route Control (TECs) routes. Verbal route descriptions will include the route name and associated visual cues on the route. The TEC route versions will include relevant waypoints and charts outlining the route with waypoints marked. The study will be part of a UAM X1 human in the loop (HITL) simulation. Controller participants will handle traditional air traffic including moderate levels of UAM traffic on current and modified helicopter routes within the Dallas Fort-Worth area. Scenarios will be counterbalanced and repeated to test both route formatting versions. After each trial, participants will rate the usability of the LOA used in the previous trial via a subjective questionnaire. We expect that controllers will prefer the LOA with TEC routes due to simplicity and visual elements available.

aerospace human factors↗
NASA NTRS2018

Evaluation of Usability and Workload Associated with Paper Strips as Compared to Virtual Flight Strips Used for Ramp Operations

This paper describes a study comparing the use of paper strips with virtual flight strips depicted on a new user interface, the Ramp Traffic Console (RTC), designed for use by ramp controllers to be used in place of paper strips. A Human-In-the-Loop (HITL) experiment was performed as the fifth in a series of six HITL simulation studies designed to evaluate a pushback Decision Support Tool (DST) concept for Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT). Workload and usability were assessed in post-run and post-study questionnaires. In the RTC virtual flight strip condition, post-run questionnaire results show lower workload ratings across all aspects of workload; additionally a trend is found toward increased usability ratings. Post-study questionnaire results indicate a preference for RTC over paper strips. Additional research is suggested with more training runs and a greater number of participants to increase statistical power. It is also suggested that this new technology be re-evaluated as a part of the ATD-2 (Airspace Technology Demonstration 2) field testing activities.

Human Factors↗