Comparison of Air Traffic Controller Display Techniques for Reaching Target Times at Significant Waypoints

With the introduction of a time-based air traffic control approach, new display techniques are necessary to support controllers. This is especially true for ensuring compliance with aircraft target times at significant waypoints. In this paper, five different visual aids were examined in a small-scale, reduced complexity study: Slot Marker, Time-To-Gain/Lose, Timeline, TargetWindow, and a Baseline display. Sixteen study participants had to manage aircraft to arrive at waypoints on schedule. Simulation results showed that participants performed worst using no visual aid at all. Based on questionnaire responses, the Slot Marker display was most intuitive and easy to use. Measured performance parameters show that high time accuracy goes along with greater numbers of given commands. However, multiple commands cause inefficient flight trajectories due to speed adjustments. Therefore, a tradeoff between high time accuracy and low economically reasonable command rates is necessary for visual aids in air traffic control.