Attending
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•Bo Redeborn, Eurocontrol
Making Research Results Real
Bo Redeborn started his training as an Air Traffic Controller at the Swedish ATS Academy in 1972 and was subsequently employed by the Swedish Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). In the 1980s he spent six years as an ATCO in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on an ICAO Technical Assistance mission, then returned to the CAA and took up managerial functions with increasing responsibility. He joined EUROCONTROL in February 2004 as Director ATM Strategies and was appointed to his current position as Principal Director ATM on 1st January 2011. He is responsible for overseeing the organisation’s ATM policy and development and for managing high level strategic relations with key ATM partners. He also heads the Directorate of SESAR and Research which encompasses the activities delivering EUROCONTROL’s contribution to the SESAR Joint Undertaking Work Programme.
Abstract
The progressive and somewhat retarded advances in automation in complex socio-technical systems, such as those employed to ensure safe and efficient operations in aerospace, are strengthening the recognition and value of Human Factors and its component parts.
One may consider that today’s ATM operations are benefitting from research performed throughout the last two decades but which, in an industry largely composed of monopolists reluctant to embrace new technologies or innovations, have achieved little more than the automation of the pencil.
Needless to say, much remains to be done as the density and complexity of air traffic increases. But there are perhaps two interesting dimensions to the problem which must be addressed:
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•The role of the human in the “system” and his interactions within
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•Getting innovative products and services to the market
For those who exercise their talents within the business, it comes as no surprise that today the human remains at the helm of the decision making processes on both the flight deck and in the ATM environment. While other business sectors embrace change and automation at a very rapid pace, for many diverse and sometimes obscure reasons, aviation, and in particular ATM, remains conservative and it is not uncommon for the transformation of small evolutionary changes to the modus operandi to require decades.
This central role of the operator today may be traced back to the 50’s and 60’s where the availability and reliance on technologies were minimal and where the safe operation of an emergent transportation mode was assured by the rigorous application of procedures coupled with the creativity of its highly professional operators, which has largely underpinned aviation’s reputation of being the safest mode of transport. But there are signs that the underlying assumptions regarding inherent safety are imperfect and the ability of the human to recover from abnormal situations is deteriorating.
While certain factors contributing to this degradation may be attributed to the cultural diversity and disparity in education and training, the impact in incidents attributed to decreased vigilance and fatigue is emerging as a major area of concern, occurrences which may well rise as the traffic density and complexity increases and new levels of automation are introduced into the systems.
Yet, recognition and awareness of the current and future challenges are emerging. While HCI and human factors have now become a recognized and mostly integral part of the life-cycle of aerospace technology, the science must now rise to these new challenges and exercise its full potential to ensure that the future tools, systems, organisations, regulations and policies are designed to fulfil the job, integrating the human dimension when appropriate while ensuring the best utilization of his capacities.