Citation

Brooker P. Hum. Factors Aerosp. Safety 2005; 5(1): 23-41.

Affiliation

p.brooker@cranfield.ac.uk

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Ashgate Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The objective here is to try to understand how the fact that air traffic controllers are people - particular kinds of people - is likely to affect the introduction of automation. This examination takes as an example a suite of computer assistance tools for en route ATC. How would these tools need to change if the fact that controllers are 'people' is taken into account? One key definition is that of 'automation': a device or system that accomplishes (partially or fully) a function that was previously carried out (partially or fully) by a human operator. This is a very broad statement: it covers both the introduction of computer technology where it did not exist before and computer systems that possess some degree of autonomy. There is an extensive literature on 'function allocation': selecting the right type and level of automation, in particular deciding how to allocate tasks between operators and automation. Aviation has made most of its technological advances by adopting scientific reductionism. The modern aviation industry demonstrates the success of this methodology. Psychology has usually followed this approach, looking hard at the cause and effect relationships in the separate chunks. The difficulty here is that the various psychological chunks have not received comparable or consistent attention; nor have they been integrated together.