A computational study of autonomy and authority in air traffic control

This paper reports on a new methodology to analyze the impact of a distribution of autonomy and authority within a concept of operation. Unlike Human-In-The-Loop methods, this computational methodology uses the Work Models that Compute framework to simulate the concept of operation in the very early design phases. The two key metrics assess the trace of all actions that each agent needs to perform, as well as all the information that needs to be exchanged. To demonstrate in a five aircraft scenario, the lead aircraft performs an Optimal Profile Descent arrival. Every following aircraft is tasked with maintaining an interval of 60 seconds behind the aircraft immediately in front of it. Unlike current day operations, where the air traffic controller is responsible for ensuring spacing, this authority was given to the pilots. The simulation provides a time trace of the actions performed by every pilot and the information exchanges within lead aircraft and in-trail aircraft pilot pairs. In this case, this method quickly identified how the information requirement increases in frequency further back in the aircraft sequence.