A method to reveal workload weak-resilience-signals at a rail control post

Reorganization of a rail control post may affect its ability to cope with unexpected disruptions. The term ‘resilience’, the ability to manage spare adaptive capacity when unexpected events occur, encapsulates this situation. This paper focuses on the workload adaptive capacity through a method for revealing workload weak-resilience-signals (WRS). Three different workload measurements are adapted to identify structural changes in workload. The first, executed cognitive task load, targets system activities. The second, integrated workload scale, is a subjective measure. The last, heart rate variability, identifies physiological arousal because of workload. An experiment is designed to identify the workload change and distribution across group members during disruptions. A newly defined Stretch, the reaction of the system to an external cluster-event, is used to reveal a workload WRS. The method is suitable for real-time usage and provides the means for the rail signaler to influence the system through his subjective workload perception

Re-design of an Inbound Planning Interface for Air Traffic Control

In the coming decades, the task of an air traffic controller is expected to shift to one of strategic, trajectorybased air traffic management. This form of air traffic control is no longer possible without the help of automated support tools. In previous research, it has been shown that the time-space diagram, combined with a conventional plan view display is a good candidate for supporting an air traffic controller with the inbound planning task in the future situation. However, in this initial study, the vertical plane was not yet fully included. Secondly, during an initial validation experiment, creating and maintaining a ’mental picture’ of the traffic was reported to be a difficult task. These findings lead to the re-design of the interface in the current research, which focuses on implementing the vertical plane and improving the integration of information across the successive displays. An experiment has been performed with a PC-based simulation which validates that the enhanced interface can be used to manage the air traffic safely and efficiently. Secondly, it has been shown that the ability to manipulate the speed of an aircraft in the adjacent sector can significantly increase situation awareness and reduce controller workload.Control & OperationsAerospace Engineerin