Proposals for air traffic management, such as Free Flight, call for a transfer of responsibility for separation between aircraft from air traffic controllers (ATCs) to pilots. Under many proposals, the role of the ATC will change from one of active control to passive monitoring. This study directly compared these types of control with respect to ATC mental workload, conflict detection, and memory. 18 ATCs participated in an air traffic control simulation of Free Flight procedures under moderate and high traffic load. Dependent variables included accuracy and timeliness in detecting potential conflicts, accepting and handing off aircraft, mental workload, and memory for aircraft location. High traffic density and passive control both degraded conflict detection performance. Actual or potential applications of this research include the recommendation that designs for future air traffic management keep authority for separation of aircraft with the controller.
Abstract