Abstract
Digital tower has been applied for middle and small sizes of airports for many years. How to adapt digital tower to be used in a large-scale international airport still not be fully investigated. The concept of digital tower operations is that a controller can control any apron from a distant virtual control center. The view of the apron under control is displayed in real time on screens and all traffic movements can be controlled effectively. Therefore, the system designs on digital tower related to human-computer interaction (HCI) and visual presentations which controllers shall be able to identify for safety operations are the main concern of regulator. The research objective is to conduct safety assessment of implementing digital tower for apron control on an international airport. There are six subject-matter experts including four apron controllers and two human factors experts participated in current research. The Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA) method was used to break down activities, scenarios, and operational steps into each scenario related to apron control in an international airport. The HTA method enables a comprehensive step-by-step description of the task activities associated with each specific scenario related to departure and arrival aircraft and ground vehicle. These operational steps were analysed by human error template (HET) while implementing digital tower for apron control. The result of current research has no safety concern on the safety assessment of digital tower operations from apron controllers’ point of view. Designing and managing innovative digital tower on apron control require an understanding of the principles of cognitive systems, allocation of functions and team adaptation between human operators and innovative technology.
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Acknowledgements
Authors would like to express special thanks to all apron controllers for their contributions to this research. Their supports and the enthusiasm of their respective teams were invaluable in facilitating the authors’ research efforts.
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Zou, P., Li, WC., Zhang, J. (2021). Implementation Digital Tower for Apron Control on a Large-Scale of International Airport. In: Harris, D., Li, WC. (eds) Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics. HCII 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12767. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77932-0_13
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