Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-95).

Thesis--Auburn University, 2009. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 95-97).

Thesis (M.S.)--Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: visual; clutter; measurement; reduction; information; visualization; air traffic. Includes bibliographical references. (p.64-66)

Radiotelephony between air traffic controllers and pilots utilises standard phraseology as the medium of communications. Standard phraseology employs specific structure, terminology and pronunciation to ensure effectiveness and accuracy. On occasions when standard phraseology is found insufficient, plain language is used to efficiently relay vital information. By default, English is the designated language of communication between controllers and pilots of international flights. Deviations from the usage of standard phraseology and lack of language proficiency had been identified as one of the causal factors in safety occurrences. Language deficiencies, specifically of the non-native speakers of the English language, had raised much concern but there is limited information in the area. This research attempted to fill a small segment of this knowledge gap. It was focussed on the usage of standard phraseology and English language in an air traffic control environment involving English Second Language users. Audio data was sourced from routine radiotelephony recordings of ‘live’ air traffic control facilities in Malaysia to capture realistic communications between controllers and pilots in the Terminal Approach Radar, Area Radar and Aerodrome Control environments. A detailed cross sectional investigation of the radiotelephony characteristics, deficiencies and errors of transmitted messages revealed the radiotelephony performances of controllers and pilots in the environments. The recurrence of deviations from standards and occurrence of errors implied the likelihood of such deficiencies taking place. Demographic groups’ descriptions complemented the radiotelephony analyses as background information on language related training. The results were comparative to other similar studies and offered new information on English Second Language speakers in the Air Traffic Control environment.

abstract: This study examined the impact of Situation Presence Assessment Method (SPAM) administration on air traffic control (ATC) students’ task workload and performance in high-fidelity ATC simulations. ATC students performed high-fidelity en-route simulations in two conditions: baseline conditions (without SPAM questions) and SPAM conditions. The data collected show that while workload in the two conditions were not significantly different, there was a trend of higher mental workload in SPAM conditions than in baseline conditions. Performance immediately following SPAM questions was revealed to be poorer than that preceding the SPAM questions and that over the equivalent time periods in the baseline conditions. The results suggest that a "Ready" signal before a SPAM question may not be enough to eliminate the impact of SPAM administration on ATC students’ workload and performance in high-fidelity en-route simulations. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Technology 2016

M.Sc. / This thesis investigates how intelligent agents can be used to solve airline scheduling problems. It is divided into three parts. The first states what airline scheduling consists of; the second discusses the results of a literature study; and the third consists of solutions to the problem. Airline scheduling consists of three major activities viz. market-driven flight generation, crew assignment and operational problem management. The market schedulers first create a flight set based on a forecast of passenger numbers and passenger preferences. The crew schedulers attempt to crew the flights generated by the market schedulers (subject to safety and rest regulations). The operational schedulers maintain the flights from seven days prior to the day of operation to one day after the end of the flight. Finding a global solution to this three-phase operation is the airline scheduling problem. An agent-based solution to the airline scheduling problem was the focus of this thesis. Agents encapsulate many useful artificial intelligence solution strategies. For the proposed solution to the market driven scheduling problem a distributed negotiation scheme using agents was used. A routing and an assignment agent were defined to assist the crew scheduler. Finally an operational scheduling agent was defined to solve the operational scheduling problem. The routing and assignment agents make use of FIFOqueues and genetic algorithms. The operational scheduling agent makes use of a traditional expert system combined with a learning algorithm to give it more flexibility. A prototype, developed in Java, was used to demonstrate how agents could solve the market driven scheduling problem. This distributed negotiation scheme was implemented on Sun SPARC workstations running the Solaris operating system. A prototype developed in Delphi was also developed to show how learning algorithms could be applied to the scheduling environment.

The aim of this study was to determine level of work stress in a group of air traffic controllers from the South African Air Force, and also a group of air traffic controllers from the civil sector. It is commonly known that air traffic control is considered a stressful job, and the researcher decided to examine the situation in South Africa. Stressors which may be applicable to the air traffic controller were discussed, to help the controller to identify his source of stress. The air traffic control job was also studied to identify its stressful elements. The research group consisted of 97 persons, 52 from the SAAF, and 45 from the civil sector. Most of them were in the age group of 19-25 years. Rice's Stress&Health questionnaire was used to determine the respondents' stress levels in three sub-categories. These sub-categories were interpersonal stress, physical stress, and job interest. The results show that civil sector controllers experience a higher level of work stress than their colleagues in the SAAF. This is because of the civil sector's higher workload. Results show that the factors influencing stress are complex and include amount of workload and personality type. Proposals were made with regard to stress management. / Thesis (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-203). / In order to support the development of improved methods for departure operations, the flow constraints and their causalities --primarily responsible for inefficiencies and delays-- need to be identified. This thesis is an effort to identify such flow constraints and gain a deep understanding of the departure process underlying dynamics based on field observations and analysis conducted at Boston Logan International Airport. It was observed that the departure process forms a complex interactive queuing system and is highly controlled by the air traffic controllers. Therefore, Flow constraints were identified with airport resources (runways, taxiways, ramp and gates) and with air traffic controllers due to their workload and control strategies. While departure delays were observed in all airport components, flow constraints manifested mainly at the runway system, where the longest delays and queues concentrated. Major delays and inefficiencies were also observed due to flow constraints at National Air Space locations downstream of the airport, which propagate back and block the departure flow from the airport. The air traffic controllers' main strategies in managing the traffic and dealing with the flow constraints were also identified. / (cont.) Based on these observations, a core departure process abstraction was posed consisting of a queuing element (representing the delays) and a control element (representing the air traffic controller actions). The control element represents blocking the aircraft flow, to maintain safe airport operation according to Air Traffic Control procedures and to regulate the outbound flow to constrained downstream resources. Based on this physical abstraction, an analytical queuing framework was developed and used to analyze the departure process dynamics under three different scenarios: the overall process between pushback and takeoff, departure sub-processes between controller/pilot communication events and under downstream restrictions. Passing which results mainly from aircraft sequencing and their suspension under special circumstances (such as downstream restrictions) was used as a manifestation of the control behavior. It was observed that Logan Airport exhibits high uncertainty and limited sequencing, hindering the air traffic controllers' ability to efficiently manage the traffic and comply with restrictions. In conclusion, implications for improved methods for departure operations are inferred from the observations and analysis. / by Husni Rifat Idris. / Ph.D.

<p>The international aviation industry has embraced a revolutionary future concept of operations known as "free flight". The free flight concept allows each aircraft to travel between destinations using flexible fuel efficient routes rather than the current fixed jet routes. Flying the present inefficient fixed routes costs the airlines millions of dollars annually in fuel and personnel costs. Additionally, because there are only a limited number of the current "highways in the sky", aircraft in the United States and Europe regularly experience delays waiting for their turn to access the jet-routes. This present system also constrains future air traffic growth, particularly in oceanic airspace.</p> <p> To address these deficiencies, direct pilot-to-controller communications are required in oceanic airspace managed by the United States. This functional requirement for direct pilot-to-controller communications is not being met by the present oceanic air-to-ground communications system.</p> <p>Using a systems engineering approach, this project determines the feasibility of extending domestic air traffic control communication systems into the U.S. managed oceanic airspace over the Gulf of Mexico. Two feasible alternatives are evaluated for achieving this capability.</p> / Master of Science

One of the major problems plaguing the airline industry in recent years has been the steady increase in the number and duration of flight delays. Airports have not been able to keep pace with the increase in air traffic. Consequently, Congress has directed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to initiate programs to reduce delays and improve airport capacity. One program the FAA has initiated evaluates the simultaneous use of three and four closely spaced parallel runways. These operations would allow cost efficient capacity increases through concurrent use of already constructed runways and through the construction of additional runways at existing airports. Recent simulation studies have indicated that improvements in controller displays are required to safely conduct multiple parallel ILS approaches to runways spaced 4300 ft apart or less. This study was designed to quantify the ability of the Precision Runway Monitor (PRM) display to enhance controller performance over the current display, the Automated Radar Terminal System (ARTS) ILIA. Additionally, the effects of blunder degree and the number of simultaneous parallel approach operations (dual or triple approaches) on the controller's ability to detect aircraft blunders were also examined. A blunder is an unusually sharp turn by an aircraft off its ILS localizer course toward an adjacent ILS course. The PRM display, a high resolution raster scan color monitor, enhanced the controller's ability to quickly detect aircraft blunders over the ARTS ILIA display (the current display system), a Plan position Indicator (PPI). The average controller response times were smaller (4 seconds) and the average closest points of approach (CPAs) between the blundering and the evading aircraft were larger (776 ft) when the controllers used the PRM display. As in earlier studies, the thirty degree blunders resulted in conflicts that were more severe than the conflicts associated with twenty degree blunders. Conversely, contrary to earlier studies, the controllers were able to detect the twenty degree blunders as quickly as they detected thirty degree blunders. The controllers performed as well in the dual parallel approach operation as they did in the triple approach operation for all measures. The results of this study generally agreed with those found in earlier studies on controller performance. Controller performance can be improved with the use of high resolution displays with alert systems. However, unlike earlier studies, this study provided a quantification of the benefit of a proposed system relative to the current system. / Master of Science