1 Automation Adoption and Adaptation in the Air Traffic Control, URET Case Study Tatjana Bolic

2 Problem Statement and Goal Capacity constraint, improvements in form of Decision Support Tools (DSTs) Incremental development of Air Traffic Control (ATC) system in USA Unexpected consequences Need to know more about adoption of automation in ATC – to facilitate easier and faster transitions from one system to another Goal – to assess the automation adoption by air traffic controllers

3 Outline  URET description  URET diffusion  Interviews with Subject Matter Experts  Hypotheses  Conclusions and Recommendations

4 URET Description  Three displays  Conflict probe  Trial plan  Automated route amendment

5 URET Description  Aircraft List and Plan display – electronic flight strips  Graphic Plan display  Wind Grid display

6 URET Description  Usage variation:  Different teams use it in a different way  Usage differs from the intended usage  Usage differs across centers

7 URET Diffusion  Diffusion of innovation: “is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system “  4 elements:  Innovation - URET  Communication channels – inter personal and inter facility FAA networks  Time – length of URET usage  Social system – individual en-route facilities

8 URET Diffusion  Social system norms  Innovation characteristics:  Relative advantage  Compatibility  Complexity  Trialability  Observability  Adaptation: “the degree to which an innovation is changed or modified by a user in the process of its adoption and implementation “

9 Interviews With Subject Matter Experts  Assistant Controller (D-side) duties  Individual differences  Center differences  Airspace differences  URET issues

10 Interviews With Subject Matter Experts  Assistant controller (D-side) duties

11 Interviews With Subject Matter Experts  Individual differences  Personal styles

12 Interviews With Subject Matter Experts  Center differences  Team oriented  Individual oriented  Staffing

13 Interviews With Subject Matter Experts  Airspace differences FL 140 FL 240 FL 350

14 Interviews With Subject Matter Experts  URET Issues  False conflict alerts  Training

15 Hypotheses  Hypothesis 1: The longer the controller uses URET, the more complete his use of its capabilities will be. Time Learning

16 Hypotheses  Hypothesis 2: Quality and depth of training will affect the use of URET.

17 Hypotheses  Hypothesis 3: New controllers will use all main functionalities more than the old controllers.

18 Hypotheses  Hypothesis 4: Adaptation of URET use will result when controller works the sector alone, and if the controller works alone most of the time, the adaptation will be even more pronounced.

19 Hypotheses  Hypothesis 5: Strategic environment is more suited for full URET use than the tactical environment. FL 140 FL 240 FL 350

20 Hypotheses  Hypothesis 6: D-side controllers who use the full URET functionality will offer conflict resolution to their R-side controller more often than D-side controllers who don’t use the full URET functionality.

21 Conclusions and Recommendations  Adoption and adaptation of automation not new – not applied in ATC  Use diffusion of innovation to investigate innovation adoption in ATC  Future work - Survey development and administration