ATM automation: guidance on human technology integration

© Civil Aviation Authority 2016Human interaction with technology and automation is a key area of interest to industry and safety regulators alike. In February 2014, a joint CAA/industry workshop considered perspectives on present and future implementation of advanced automated systems. The conclusion was that whilst no additional regulation was necessary, guidance material for industry and regulators was required. Development of this guidance document was completed in 2015 by a working group consisting of CAA, UK industry, academia and industry associations (see Appendix B). This enabled a collaborative approach to be taken, and for regulatory, industry, and workforce perspectives to be collectively considered and addressed. The processes used in developing this guidance included: review of the themes identified from the February 2014 CAA/industry workshop1; review of academic papers, textbooks on automation, incidents and accidents involving automation; identification of key safety issues associated with automated systems; analysis of current and emerging ATM regulatory requirements and guidance material; presentation of emerging findings for critical review at UK and European aviation safety conferences. In December 2015, a workshop of senior management from project partner organisations reviewed the findings and proposals. EASA were briefed on the project before its commencement, and Eurocontrol contributed through membership of the Working Group.Final Published versio

Identifying how automation can lose its intended benefit along the development process : a research plan

Doctoral Consortium Presentation © The Authors 2009Automation is usually considered to improve performance in virtually any domain. However it can fail to deliver the target benefit as intended by those managers and designers advocating the introduction of the tool. In safety critical domains this problem is of significance not only because the unexpected effects of automation might prevent its widespread usage but also because they might turn out to be a contributor to incident and accidents. Research on failures of automation to deliver the intended benefit has focused mainly on human automation interaction. This paper presents a PhD research plan that aims at characterizing decisions for those involved in development process of automation for safety critical domains, taken under productive pressure, to identify where and when the initial intention the automation is supposed to deliver can be lost along the development process. We tentatively call such decisions as drift and the final objective is to develop principles that will allow to identify and compensate for possible sources of drift in the development of new automation. The research is based on case studies and is currently entering Year 2

An Organizational Study into the Concept of Automation in a Safety Critical Socio-technical System

Part 3: Evaluations, Interactions and Applications International audience Although automation has been introduced in all areas of public life, what seems to be missing is a reflection at the organizational or societal level about a policy of automation. By this we intend appropriate declarations made at the level of rationale, future plans and strategies to achieve intended goals and most importantly how those achievements will impact on various aspects of societal life, from legal responsibilities to moral and socio economic issues. In some public spheres these issues are becoming quite controversial because automation opens up possibilities of profound structural re-organization; however, we lack a discussion across and within different work domains to help us review methods or even methodological principles needed to gather and organize knowledge towards the construction of automation policies. This paper uses the UK service organization for Air Traffic Management Domain called NATS National Air traffic Service, as a case study to illustrate an example of an organization currently undertaking critical self-reflection about automation policy or lack of such, along with the illustration of some unresolved deep concerns raised by the development, introduction, and continued use of automation. Document type: Part of book or chapter of boo

The natire and scope of safety management in the NHS comparison with NASA and aviation

Paola Amaldi, Sara Khalil, ‘The nature and scope of safety management in the NHS comparison with NASA and aviation’, poster presented at the Health Services Research UK Symposium, Nottingham, UK, 13-14 July, 2016.Safety critical industries are those that may cause harm to the environment, public or personnel (Reiman & Oedewald, 2008) and they are required to manage and monitor their own safety operations. Healthcare is regarded as such an industry. Public enquiries into serious healthcare failures in the 1990’s resulted in recommendations to increase safety operations, one of them being to incorporate safety management methods used by other safety critical industries, namely aviation. At that time safety critical industries followed a ‘find and fix’ method of safety management using tools like incident reporting. Consequently healthcare research focused on developing incident reporting, as well as team learning and checklists (Sendlhofer, & Kamolz, 2015). In the ensuing 20 years, safety critical industries incorporated the latest research into the systems approach when developing their safety management systems (SMS), whilst the NHS focused its research on improving patient safety through gaining greater clinical evidence and improving incident reporting.Peer reviewe

An organizational study into the concept of automation in a safety critical socio-technical system

Part 3: Evaluations, Interactions and ApplicationsInternational audienceAlthough automation has been introduced in all areas of public life, what seems to be missing is a reflection at the organizational or societal level about a policy of automation. By this we intend appropriate declarations made at the level of rationale, future plans and strategies to achieve intended goals and most importantly how those achievements will impact on various aspects of societal life, from legal responsibilities to moral and socio economic issues. In some public spheres these issues are becoming quite controversial because automation opens up possibilities of profound structural re-organization; however, we lack a discussion across and within different work domains to help us review methods or even methodological principles needed to gather and organize knowledge towards the construction of automation policies. This paper uses the UK service organization for Air Traffic Management Domain called NATS – National Air traffic Service, as a case study to illustrate an example of an organization currently undertaking critical self-reflection about automation policy or lack of such, along with the illustration of some unresolved deep concerns raised by the development, introduction, and continued use of automation

A Multi-Perspective View on Human-Automation Interactions in Aviation

Part 3: Specific Contexts; International audience; Control mechanisms for the evolving potential of autonomous systems are not yet sufficiently established. However, there is a need for control to be allocated throughout organisational and institutional levels of society in order to manage increasing complexities. This study, which applies to the domain of Air Traffic Management (ATM), aims s to gauge stakeholders’ attitudes at an organisational level in order to lay the foundations for an easier identification of the challenges and paths to improvements in this industry. Using Grounded Theory (GT), the study maps and interprets workshop data and questionnaires gathered to elicit professionals’ views on automation in the aviation industry. The themes identified, which resonate with all those reviewed in the literature, will form the basis for the construction of a checklist and survey of automation issues expressed at an organisational level of control

The integration of alarm devices into socio-technical systems : The case of an airborne alert device (ACAS)

Three current views on safety management (i.e., the “additive”, the “linearity” and the “limited cognition” views respectively) are proposed and critically discussed in the light of an analysis of 3500 Incident Reports filled in by pilots and ATC after the triggering of an onboard anti-collision alarm. Findings indicate that the safety device doesn’t “act” as a stand-alone, last resort safety net. Rather, it intervenes into the practice as yet another agent. Integrating the output of the safety device into the ongoing flow of activities is shown to raise issues of “management cost”

The problem is not over-automation but lack of automation policy

Peer reviewe