Developing Target Symbicons for the Future Terminal Air Traffic Control Environment

Abstract

Current air traffic control target symbols are holdover designs developed for obsolete display technology to depict radar surveillance uncertainty. Given new technological capabilities and new surveillance techniques, it is time to reexamine the target symbology for a new generation of air traffic control displays. Symbicons (Smallman, St. John, Oonk, and Cowen, 2001a, 2001b) are a combination of icons and symbols that code meaningful information using simplified visual coding. This assessment focuses on creating and evaluating novel designs for target symbicons for Terminal Radar Approach Control displays while incorporating human factors standards and best practices. In this study, we evaluated different candidate symbicons that conveyed information such as aircraft category and aircraft conformance. We examined the heuristics controllers use that make certain symbicons better candidates to represent different aircraft categories. We discuss the almost universal agreement among the controllers for the tested aircraft conformance symbicons.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Cardosi

K.M.

Murphy

E.D.

(Eds.) (1995). Human factors in the design and evaluation of air traffic control systems (DOT/FAA/RD-95-3, DOT-VNTSC-FAA-95-3), Office of Aviation Research, Federal Aviation Administration. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Transportation.

Carney

Campbell

J. L.

Mitchell

E. A.

(1998). In-vehicle display icons and other information elements. Task A: Literature review (FHWA-RD-98-164). Washington, DC: Federal Highway Administration.

Chandra

D.C.

Yeh

(2007). Pilot identification of symbols and an exploration of symbol design issues for electronic displays of aeronautical charting information. (DOT/FAA/AR-07/37, DOT-VNTSC-FAA-07-07). Cambridge, MA: US DOT Volpe National Transportation Systems Center.

Federal Aviation Administration (2008). 2009−2013 Flight Plan. Washington, DC.

Friedman-Berg

Allendoerfer

Deshmukh

(in preparation). Moving Toward an Air Traffic Control Display Standard: Creating a Standardized Target Symbology for Terminal Situation Displays. Atlantic City International Airport, NJ: Federal Aviation Administration.

Green

Pew

R.W.

(1978). Evaluating pictographic symbols: An automotive application. Human Factors, 20, 103–114.

Mackett-Stout

Dewar

(1981). Evaluation of symbolic public information signs. Human Factors, 23, 139–151.

Nunes

Mogford

(2003). Identifying control strategies that support the ‘picture’, Proceedings of the 47th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 71–75.

Palmer

E.M.

Clausner

T.C.

Kellman

P.J.

(2008). Enhancing air traffic displays via perceptual cues. ACM Transactions on Applied Perception (TAP), 5, 1–22.

10.

Rosch

E.H.

(1973). Natural categories. Cognitive Psychology, 4, 328–350.

11.

Smallman

H.S.

St. John

Oonk

H.M.

Cowen

M.B.

(2001a). Information Availability in 2D and 3D Displays. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 21, 51–57.

12.

Smallman

H.S.

St. John

Oonk

H.M.

Cowen

M.B.

(2001b). ‘SYMBICONS’: a hybrid symbology that combines the best elements of SYMBols and ICONS. Proceedings of the 45th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 110–114.

13.

Tam

Corker

K. M.

Duong

(2003). Information Support for Air Traffic Management in the SuperSector: Color-Saturation Coding of Aircraft Altitude & Effects on Air Traffic Controller Perfmance. 5^th Annual USA/Europe ATM R & D seminar.

14.

Yeh

Chandra

D.C.

(2005). Designing and evaluating symbols for electronic displays of navigation information: Symbol stereotypes and symbol-feature rules. (DOT/FAA/AR-05/48, DOT-VNTSC-FAA-05-16). Cambridge, MA: US DOT Volpe National Transportation Systems Center.

15.

Yeh

Chandra

D.C.

(2006). Pilot stereotypes for navigation symbols on electronic displays. In Reuzeau

Corker

Boy

(Eds.) Proceedings of the International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction in Aeronautics. (pp. 66–73). Toulouse, France: Cépaduès-Éditions.