Performance based approach to investigate resilience and robustness of an ATM System

Abstract

Resilience is a fundamental property of the natural ecosystem that enables quick recovery after numerous disturbances occurring frequently. This vital ability of the ecosystem makes resilience a very desirable property of man-made socio-technical systems. The European ATM System, which in future will be set up to achieve the performance targets given by SESAR, is such a socio-technical system. A lot of contradictory definitions of the term resilience in different domains fall into two big categories with semantical meanings of ”resilience“ or ”robustness“. Currently, in the ATM Context exists a definition of resilience from the safety science perspective only. This paper will apply a new definition of resilience and robustness on the ATM System to help realizing the agreed performance targets under the influence of disturbances. To follow this approach, a clear differentiation between both terms has to be carried out. The aim of this conceptual paper is to present a developed framework that incorporates concepts of robustness, resilience and relevant terms such as disturbance, stress and perturbation. This is complemented by an according decision-making chain. Furthermore, this paper suggests some qualitative and quantitative forms of measures of resilience and robustness and provides a structured approach for the investigation of both terms. By incorporating the presented terminology in order to identify new methods to increase resilience or robustness, a new modeling approach will be introduced. This will be complemented by an according algorithm. The structure of the modeling approach divides the ATM System into two - a sociological and a physical dimensions. The sociological dimension shall enable to reveal improvement potential in the context of operational rules of particular stakeholders, adapting resources and finding alternative ways to achieve the given performance targets.