Workload Models for Human Operators Involved in Air Traffic Separation Assurance

Data from man-in-the-loop simulation, where the separation assurance is either ensured by air traffic control or delegated to the pilots, is used to derive and validate models correlating instantaneous self assessment and objective factors. Factors are selected, parameters are computed and models are assessed in terms of correlation and ability to classify. Models for air traffic controllers are based on functions of density, number of aircraft in an airspace and take into account the presence or absence of a conflict detection and resolution tool. Workload models for pilots are centered primarily around a number of functions - those associated with the number of conflicts during present and previous time periods, those contributing to convergence and, finally, those related to conflict detection and resolution horizon. This paper discusses the technical approaches taken to develop these models.