Analyzing Controller Tasks to Define Air Traffic Control System Automation Requirements

This paper describes a task analysis-based methodology developed to support the requirements specification, design, and operational suitability evaluation of the next generation Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. A sample ATC scenario is used to show the relationship between our task analysis methodology, system-level function allocations, and user-system interface (USI) design. Task networks and characterizations based on an aircraft-to-airspace conflict situation under two different function allocation schemes are described. Methods of using the task analysis to guide USI design decisions are presented, along with several candidate USI designs developed using these criteria.