Understanding the Human Factors Limitations of Automated Conflict Resolution through Air Traffic Controller Solicitation

Automated conflict resolution is one of the most mature ideas available in the attempt to meet the high capacity air traffic demand expectations of NextGen. However, automated conflict resolution algorithms that are mathematically optimal may not be globally optimal when human factors dimensions are considered. In order to better understand the limitations of conflict resolution algorithms from a human factors dimension, air traffic control from Southern California TRACON are interviewed about current operations and potential future operations with automated conflict resolution. The focus of these interviews are twofold. The first focus is on understanding the tacit knowledge required for operations in the presence of hazardous weather conditions, a time when controller workload demands are particularly exacerbated. The second focus is to understand situations where mathematically optimal automated conflict resolution solutions may not be globally optimal from a human factors perspective. The contribution of this work is a summarization of human factors points of consideration for future design of air traffic control operations and automated conflict resolutions.