Evaluation of the Impact on Air Traffic Controllers of Air-Ground Datalink Technologies (LDACS and current CPDLC) in Flight Centric ATC

Abstract

This paper describes the results of a real-time simulation to evaluate the impact on air traffic controllers of higher levels of on-board automation associated with the implementation of new controller-pilot communication technologies. This human-in-the-loop validation was performed on a European-wide Flight Centric ATC (FCA) operational environment. In this new concept, air traffic controllers work together in one airspace and are responsible for a certain number of aircraft within this airspace. The assignment of aircraft to controllers must thus be clearly defined through an allocation strategy. In this study three possible levels of on-board automation were defined and two potential allocation strategies investigated. Aircraft were equipped with only radiotelephony or additionally either classic CPDLC services VDL Mode 2 (VHF datalink) or LDACS (L-band Digital Aeronautical Communications System). With a workload-based allocation strategy, each controller received all three types of aircraft in the same proportion. The number of aircraft allocated to each controller depended on workload levels, which was calculated based on certain criteria, such as number of aircraft climbing and descending, as well as potential conflicts. Allocation based on on-board automation meant that aircraft were assigned to each controller based on an additional parameter: the type of communication technology used. When allocation was on-board automation-based, data suggested that controlling aircraft equipped exclusively with LDACS results in a lower workload than controlling aircraft with other levels of on-board automation. Even though the LDACS runs were seen as relatively uneventful, they were also considered quite monotonous and participants reported feeling less engaged than if they had been using radiotelephony to talk to the pseudo-pilots. On the other hand, guiding aircraft of all types in the same run did not seem to have had a negative impact on workload levels, but air traffic controllers reported the risk of neglecting LDACS-equipped aircraft. The analysis of measured flight efficiency values during the real-time simulation showed significant savings in fuel consumption (up to 2.8 %), flight times (up to 2.07 %) and track miles (up to 2.23 %) across all levels of automation, compared to the reference scenario.