Visual Discrimination of Landing Aircraft Deceleration by Tower Controllers: Implications for Update Rate Requirements for Image-Based Virtual or Remote Towers

Abstract

Thirteen active air traffic controllers viewed high dynamic-fidelity simulations of landing aircraft and discriminated whether they would decelerate to a stop before the end of the runway, as if they would to make a runway turnoff. The viewing conditions and dynamic simulation of the aircraft deceleration replicated visual rates and environments corresponding to landings of transport aircraft at commercial airports. The purpose of the study was to help determine one of the visual requirements for the design of remote/virtual airport towers: visual update rate. The landings were presented in a prototype re¬mote tower using four side-by-side, tiled LCD panels to provide a wide angle, high resolution desktop display with three different update rates: 6, 12, and 24 Hz. The update rate that would be needed to produce asymptotic performance was estimated from a model fit to measured discriminability (d’) of the stop¬ping before runway end. Errors and subjective reports of decision certainty were used to track decision stability and will be discussed and reported and discussed in more the full paper. The required update rate appears to range from 30-60 Hz and was confirmed by error extrapolation. Definitive recommendations, however, will require further testing. Some implications for remote tower design are briefly discussed