Synthesis of allocations of authority in air traffic concepts of operation

Abstract

Innovative air traffic concepts of operation are now possible that enable novel allocations of authority and responsibility between air and ground, and between humans and automation. This paper proposes a systematic approach for the synthesis of allocations of authority and responsibility early in the design of a concept of operations to achieve its performance and safety goals. The methodology models the concept of operations as a network of actions to treat the synthesis of authority allocation as a network optimization problem. A case study involving merging and spacing operations is provided in which allocations of authority are created to minimize information transfer between agents under varying responsibility allocations and varying requirements for balancing taskload across agents. The results demonstrate how significantly metrics such as information transfer between agents, and their taskload, can vary with different allocations and, thus, how the methodology proposed here can quickly help identify appropriate allocations of authority and responsibility.