ATTENTION: TARGET AND ACTUAL – THE CONTROLLER FOCUS

Abstract

The main task of an air traffic controller (ATCO) is to ensure safe and efficient air traffic control (ATC). Therefore, the ATCO needs to have his/her attention at the right place at the right time on the controller working position’s displays. This will be even more challenging in the future with increasing information diversity, growing levels of automation, more complex air traffic mix, new technologies, and bigger screens. However, to deal with these challenges an attention guiding assistance system is developed to support the ATCO. This system needs to determine the area of target attention due to relevant upcoming ATC events. It should also evaluate the current area of attention as a function of the ATCO's gaze, e.g., via eye-tracking, and evaluate it. If there is a mismatch between target and actual area of attention, the attention focus of the ATCO has to be appropriately guided to relevant areas via cues. Based on an analysis of attention and situation awareness, attention guidance mechanisms have been developed and successfully validated in human-in-the-loop trials. ATCOs felt well-supported by visual non-intrusive guidance cues and even wanted to have such functionality in today’s working positions.