The Aims of Human Factors and Their Application to Issues in Automation and Air Traffic Control

The primary objectives of air traffic control have been described as “the safe, orderly, and expeditious flow of air traffic”(see Hopkin, 1991). At a fundamental level, this represents the aided retention of object dispersal in four dimensional space-time. As the objects under air traffic control are not within the range of “humanscale”, (Hancock & Chignell, 1990) the recognition and manipulation of such objects can only be achieved via the use of technological prosthetics. Three major constraints are imposed on this general case. First, objects are limited with respect to resources; second, they are required, at some point, each to occupy essentially a common spatial location; and third, the objects themselves are under volitional control and can act independently. Separation distance covaries with object density, as does demand on communication capability and control action. The process by which such objects are controlled itself represents a record of iterative evolution to which proposed forms of automation will add an additional layering. The impact of such automation on the human operators within such a system is the major subject of this paper.