Can Urban Air Mobility become reality? Opportunities, challenges and selected research results

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is a new air transportation system for passengers and cargo in urban environments, enabled by new technologies and integrated into multimodal transportation systems. The vision of UAM comprises the mass use in urban and suburban environments, complementing existing transportation systems and contributing to the decarbonization of the transport sector. Initial attempts to create a market for urban air transportation in the last century failed due to lack of profitability and community acceptance. Technological advances in numerous fields over the past few decades have led to a renewed interest in urban air transportation. UAM is expected to benefit users and to also have a positive impact on the economy by creating new markets and employment opportunities for manufacturing and operation of UAM vehicles and the construction of related ground infrastructure. However, there are also concerns about noise, safety and security, privacy and environmental impacts. Therefore, the UAM system needs to be designed carefully to become safe, affordable, accessible, environmentally friendly, economically viable and thus sustainable. This paper provides an overview of selected key research topics related to UAM and how the German Aerospace Center (DLR) contributed to this research in the project "HorizonUAM - Urban Air Mobility Research at the German Aerospace Center (DLR)". Selected research results that support the realization of the UAM vision are briefly presented.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, project HorizonUA

Training Operational Monitoring in Future ATCOs Using Eye Tracking

Improved technological possibilities continue to increase the significance of operational monitoring in air traffic control (ATC). The role of the air traffic controller (ATCO) will change in that they will have to monitor the operations of an automated system for failures. In order to take over control when automation fails, future ATCOs will need to be trained. While current ATC training is mainly based on performance indicators, this study will focus on the benefit of using eye tracking in future ATC training. Utilizing a low-fidelity operational monitoring task, a model of how attention should be allocated in case of malfunction will be derived. Based on this model, one group of ATC novices will receive training on how to allocate their attention appropriately (treatment). The other group will receive no training (control). Eye movements will be recorded to investigate how attention is allocated and if the training is successful. Performance measures will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the training

Measuring Situation Awareness in Control Room Teams

The importance of monitoring activities in control rooms continues to increase. Teams of operators are required to monitor a system for any abnormal system behavior, and must be able to exert manual control over the system in case of automation failure. Being ready to act requires operators to be aware of the system status at all times. However, developing and maintaining high situation awareness in a highly complex and dynamic environment can be challenging. Hence, the absence of situation awareness has often been attributed as the cause of human error in the past. A better understanding of situation awareness using different methods for quantification are required in order to reduce error and enhance the training of control room teams. The following study concentrates on evaluating situation awareness in a simulated control center task. Twenty-one three-person teams (N = 63 participants) were tested. Performance, gaze, and communication data were integrated as individual measures of situation awareness. A relationship between the three measures was identified. Post-hoc analyses revealed differences between high and low performers with regards to their situation awareness. The development of situation awareness over time was also taken into consideration. Results reveal that when investigating situation awareness in control room teams, the use of multiple measures is a promising approach

Eye movements and verbal communication as indicators for the detection of system failures in a control room task.

In modern control rooms, operators need to monitor visual information representing large technical systems. Operators usually monitor together in teams in order to detect abnormal system behaviour in time. It remains an open question which performance indicators are valuable for assessing a team member’s capabilities of detecting abnormal system behaviour. The present study investigates the value of monitoring behaviour and communication behaviour for predicting the performance results of subjects attempting to detect system failures while executing a control room task. A simulation of a generic control room was implemented in order to enable synchronized measurement of monitoring processes in teams. The monitoring behaviour was measured by tracking the eye movements of the team members while they were monitoring for system failures. Simultaneously, the communication behaviour between team members was recorded. Eye-tracking data and communication data were analysed including the interaction with team members’ performance in detecting system failures in time. Data from 21 three-member teams indicate that there are significant differences in communication and to some extent in eye-movement, between operators who detect system failures in time and those who fail to do so. The findings are discussed in the context of personnel selection and training team members in control rooms