Importance of Delegation and Redelegation in Human-Autonomy-Teamed Air Traffic Control

Abstract

Across almost all European air navigation service providers there is a current shortage of air traffic controllers (ATCOs), which contributes significantly to delayed or cancelled flights. This reduces the cost efficiency, increases the environmental impact of air traffic and causes inconvenience to airlines and passengers. Looking at the opportunities the widely discussed new generation of artificial intelligence offers to air traffic control one researched solution is the introduction of a digital (artificial intelligence) air traffic controller. It can be expected that the first operational use of a digital ATCO will not be allowed nor able to take over air traffic tasks of ATCOs to their full extent. A researched (interim) solution is a (human autonomy) team build by ATCO(s) and digital ATCO to handle air traffic together in parallel within the same airspace. In this setup, situations can develop that digital ATCO is not (yet) able to handle or where ATCO likes to change allocation as she will stay responsible for safe air traffic control. This requirement for a bi-direction change of authority (i.e. transfer of control) is termed delegation and redelegation in this poster. A first demonstrator of a functional delegation and redelegation process and its implementation was presented to seven ATCOs in a workshop and tested by them using short scenarios to clarify questions about the user interface and user experience. The results showed UEQs Pragmatic Quality scores of above 1.4 proving the user-friendliness of the delegation process.