Different levels of automation in ATC systems can have advantages and disadvantages from a Human Factors (HF) perspective. Discuss the arguments in support of high and/or low automation levels, using actual examples in which Automation /HF issues have been a contributing factor towards accidents or incidents in aviation.
Introduction
The air route is one of the important routes to travel worldwide. Various air routes exist between airports all over the world. Air routes are created to lead the commercial jet planes and organize the airspace. These air routes can exist at different altitudes.
However, it is seen that air routes in different directions tend to cross each other at some point. Air routes from different directions can converge on a particular major destination. So a third party is required to keep track of all airplanes and their respective air routes (Bianco, Dell’Olmo & Odoni,2013). Here Air Traffic Control plays a pivotal role. The main objective of ATC is to avoid collisions of aircraft, expediting & organizing the air traffic flow (Strohmeier et al.,2014). It also provides additional information and support to the pilots. This service is also used for defense and security purposes. All the rules, regulations, and techniques enforced by the ATC system are laid down by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) an agency of the United Nations established in 1944. ATC system is a very critical and complicated system. It also focuses on the safe arrival and departure of aircraft (Li & Zhou,2013).
Automation in ATC
Automation commonly known as automatic control is the use of control systems in different sectors of life such as in factories, machinery, working of aircraft & ships, networking, etc. with minimum human efforts (Wise, Hopkin & Smith, 2012). The combination of automatically controlled devices with different mathematical tools creates complicated and high-end systems that are used in different commercial, economic, and social areas.
Automation in ATC can be at different levels (LoA). It can range from low to high. The scale of automation starts from 10 to 1.
- No automation, fully manual
- Offers a set of actions to be taken
- Narrows down the actions to a few
- Gives a single alternative.
- Executes the option selected by the human
- Gives the human veto in a limited interval of time before execution.
- Firsts execute automatically then inform humans.
- informs the human if asked.
- The computer decides if to inform humans or not.
- Acts autonomously decides everything and ignores humans.
Human Factors and Automation
Different kinds of human factors related to automation are described below.
Loss of awareness of the situation
Situation awareness refers to having knowledge of past & present situations, procedures, human tasks & system functioning. There should be a perception of the environment, current status, and foresight of future status (Bianco, Dell’Olmo & Odoni,2013). It is keeping in record of what changes are happening and why it is happening which can be highly effective in a dynamic environment. Situation awareness is the interaction between the environment and humans (Chidester et al.,2013).
Higher levels of automation may lead to a loss of awareness of the situation of the operator as the computer tends to generate and even decide what task is to be performed. Operators would not be updated with the current situations which is a high disadvantage as operators or pilots may face problems in take-over of the system in case of system failure (Cook et al.,2015). On the other hand, low automation levels prove beneficial and help in gaining awareness.
Degradation of skills
Continuous using of automation can lead to degradation in skills. Many pilots and controllers have admitted to the fact that continuous use of automated machines leads to the loss of manual skills. Due to a shortfall of practice, skills are likely to deteriorate over a period. Operators may find it difficult to take over the system in case of automation failure at times (Mearns et al.,2013).
Extreme use of high levels of automation may lead to de-skilling of workers as all tasks are performed by the machine which is again a disadvantage even though the loss of skill is temporary. Low automation levels are required to be maintained to retain skills.
Problem of workload
It is one of the most reported problems in ATC. With the vigorous use of automation low workload becomes more significant (Strohmeier et al., 2014). It can have consequences equal to that of a high workload. A high workload becomes a problem if it exceeds the capacity of an individual.
The use of high automation can be of great advantage in case of heavy workload. When workload increases more than human capacity high automation helps by sharing the load with the human. While low automation may lead to a heavy workload.
Automation bias
It occurs generally in decision-making because humans do not attempt to search for information that is machine-generated and accepted as correct. Operators tend to accept any view in favor of their prior beliefs and discard any new ones (Chidester et al., 2013). A high level of automation has its advantage here as decisions taken by computers are accepted as correct ones. It leads to low automation bias
Out-of-loop phenomena
It states that an operator who is actively controlling the system stays in a closed loop of giving instructions, response to the system, and feedback. Hence he is perfectly aware of the current state of the system (Li & Zhou, 2013). If he deviates from the loop he loses track of his current state. High levels of automation can lead to this loop phenomenon as it may deprive the operator of basic decisions he needs to know hence has its disadvantages. Low levels can help by supporting the pilot in knowing the current scenario and staying in the loop.
Real-Life Incidents/Accidents and Its Relation to High/Low Automation Levels:-
The reliability of pilots on autopilot is increasing to confirm safety. Pilots generally fly the aircraft during landing and take-off, rest of the flying is done by an automated system is can fly more efficiently using less fuel (Nieto,2015).
We can take into account the crash of Asiana, a parcel-serving jet in the US. Its autopilot was on and before crashing to the ground it tried to warn the pilots. 1st pilot made a programming error and then responded incorrectly to the warning of the autopilot. The plane went to full stall losing altitude rapidly and then crashing to the ground killing pilots, 49 people on board and one man below (Wise, Hopkin & Smith, 2012). High levels of automation are needed for a proper warning system. Pilots should be aware of the current situation of the aircraft to respond correctly to the warnings given by autopilot.
Another flight accident shows the disadvantages of putting the flight in autopilot mode. Eastern Airlines flight 401crashed on Dec 29, 1972, leading to the death of 110 people. It was a Lockheed L-1011-1 Tristar jet (Xin, Mingguang & Xuedong, 2015). The entire crew got preoccupied with a landing gear indicator light which was burnt out and nobody failed to see that autopilot had been disconnected. The aircraft rapidly lost altitude and finally crashed.
Figure 1: Eastern Airlines crash, 1972
Source: (Xin, Mingguang & Xuedong, 2015)
A low level of automation divides the workloads and responsibilities between both machine & operator to keep both alerts which is convenient. Any complication regarding the aircraft can be handled both by the system and by the pilot which induces safe flying.
Conclusion
Air Traffic Control systems and Automation both play a crucial role in assuring safe flying. ATC lies down the routes and makes air traffic organized while automation assists the pilots in controlling the aircraft (Xin, Mingguang & Xuedong, 2015). From the given examples of real-life incidents, we can conclude high and low levels of automation both have their advantages and disadvantages from the perspective of Human Factors (HF). Above all, it is human who has to make the correct and appropriate use of automation system. The actions and decisions of humans will shape the consequences.
References
Bianco, L., Dell’Olmo, P., & Odoni, A. R. (Eds.). (2013). New concepts and methods in air traffic management. Springer Science & Business Media.
Cook, A., Blom, H. A., Lillo, F., Mantegna, R. N., Miccichè, S., Rivas, D., … & Zanin, M. (2015). Applying complexity science to air traffic management.Journal of Air Transport Management, 42, 149-158.
Chidester, T., Milburn, N., Peterson, L. S., Gildea, K., Roberts, C., & Perry, D. (2013). Development, Validation, and Deployment of a Revised Air Traffic Control Color Vision Test: Incorporating Advanced Technologies and Oceanic Procedures and En Route Automation Modernization Systems.
Gardi, A., Sabatini, R., Ramasamy, S., & Kistan, T. (2014, October). Real-time trajectory optimization models for next-generation air traffic management systems. In Applied Mechanics and Materials (Vol. 629, pp. 327-332). Trans Tech Publications.
Li, R., & Zhou, Z. (2013, July). Research on the operational condition evaluation of the ATC automation system. In Quality, Reliability, Risk, Maintenance, and Safety Engineering (QR2MSE), 2013 International Conference on (pp. 2022-2025). IEEE.
Mearns, K., Kirwan, B., Reader, T. W., Jackson, J., Kennedy, R., & Gordon, R. (2013). Development of a methodology for understanding and enhancing safety culture in Air Traffic Management. Safety Science, 53, 123-133.
Nieto, F. J. S. (2015). The long journey toward a higher level of automation in ATMs as safety-critical, sociotechnical, and multi-gent systems. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 0954410015596763.
Strohmeier, M., Schäfer, M., Lenders, V., & Martinovic, I. (2014). Realities and challenges of nextgen air traffic management: the case of ADS-B.Communications Magazine, IEEE, 52(5), 111-118.
Wise, J. A., Hopkin, V. D., & Smith, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Automation and systems issues in air traffic control (Vol. 73). Springer Science & Business Media.
Xin, W., Xu, W., Mingguang, L., & Xuedong, J. (2015). Fault-tolerance Techniques for ATC Systems Used in High-speed Railway to Prevent Geomagnetic Storm’s Effects. Open Automation and Control Systems Journal, 7, 459-466.
