FAirControl-A Formal Airport Control Model

Abstract

Remote Tower Operation (RTO) describes the goal of remote control of small airports. In 2005 the DLR project RapTOr was initiated in order to realize a RTO experimental system as extension of the Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control System (A-SMGCS) at the Braunschweig research airport. The design and development of the experimental RTO HMI and the new Remote-Controller work position is supported by a cognitive work and task analysis the presently existing work environment and decision processes at airport Leipzig. The formalised results serve as input data of a Formal Airport Control Model (FAirControl) for the simulation of the controller decision making processes at the tower work positions. This poster presents a formal model for the description of the whole Human Machine System. It is shown how the results of a cognitive work analysis on a medium size airport are transferred into a formal executable human machine model for simulating the controllers work processes in relation to the airport processes. The executable model supports the identification of controllers’ strategies in task organization and pursuance of goals. The formal model serves for an evaluation of different variants of work organization, a design of a new working position and monitoring of psychological parameters. The model is implemented with Coloured Petri Nets. The mathematical basis of Petri Nets allows a formal analysis of the whole system. Critical system states and inconsistencies in the human machine system are identified through comparison of the knowledge state of the controllers with process states of the airport system by using State Space analysis. The graphically represented formal work process model provides a valuable support for the communication between domain experts and system developers.