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The effect of increasing levels of automation in demand-capacity balancing processes on human actors and their roles and responsibilities: A gaming assessment

Abstract:

This paper describes the first results of the assessments of the exercises performed to assess the impact of increasing levels of automation (LoA) on human factors aspects, like trust or situational awareness, and the impact on roles and responsibilities and their interactions. These exercises have been performed using the gaming technique as innovative method to carry out this type of assessments. A set of scenarios addressing different automation levels were defined for Demand-Capacity Balancing processes in an "Airspace Organization and Management" environment. These scenarios were simulated with Air Traffic Management experts playing as actors in two Gaming Sessions: first a preparative "Paper Based" gaming session was organised followed by a complementary "Hardware Based" gaming session on the CHILL platform. Both gaming sessions were performed with three actors and a limited number of runs. Therefore, the questionnaires and the data obtained during the sessions were analysed mainly on a qualitative basis. However a graphical presentation of the ratings was provided and a trend analysis could be done. The results showed that trust and acceptance of the system increased or was at least maintained with increasing LoA and that the situational awareness and the workload remained at sufficient levels. The teamwork decreased with increasing LoA which took away the feeling of doing it together and recommendations about future support tools were especially related to how the actors communicate.