Presentation
Assessing Air Traffic Controllers’ Stress and Performance with UAV Integration in Future Air Traffic Management
Event Type
Lecture
Aerospace Systems
TimeTuesday, October 11th2:00pm - 2:15pm EDT
LocationL402/L403
DescriptionTwenty-four participants completed three en route Air Traffic Control (ATC) scenarios that differed by the degree of control and the number of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). In the first scenario (Manned), there were only manned aircraft that were all controllable without delay. In the second scenario (Mixed), UAVs were controllable with a 10-second operation delay. In the last scenario (UC), UAVs were not controllable by the participants. This scenario was designed to simulate a high degree of UAV automation. The number of missed handoffs and evaluation scores for managing traffic flow, situation awareness, prioritizing, and overall ATC quality indicated that participants had the worst performance in the Mixed scenario. NASA-TLX showed that participants experienced the highest level of stress and workload in the Mixed scenario compared to the other two scenarios. Further studies can generalize such findings to actual air traffic controllers to protect their well-being and ensure airspace safety.