Customer Reviews

Aviation Automation: The Search for A Human-centered Approach (Human Factors in Transportation)

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Billings covers the evolution of aviation automation, especially in the airborne side of the 'equation', its successes and failures, and the requirements for the future.

Incorporating the principles of human-centered automation early in the development of Air Traffic Management automation, ATC modernization would be well-advanced by also taking advantage of the lessons learned in on-board systems.

In order to maintain the situational awareness of the human operators, the design of ATM automation should be based on the 'management by consent' doctrine. ATM automation should be a 'close mimic' of on-board FMS - so that both the pilot and controller communities have a shared cognitive model of how the systems operate. And the ATM-to-FMS coupling should be procedural, rather than automated, to guarantee the ability of the human operator to safely and efficiently operate the system.

Keeping these three objectives in mind will lead to the implementation of a system that can handle the increasing traffic while not sacrificing the high level of safety we currently enjoy.

I have only one minor issue with this work: Billings mentions AAS - the Advanced Automation System project, begun in 1981 - quite often. This book was published in 1997; by that time, FAA had terminated this project.

This may be the most authoritative book written on how to design automated systems, such as on aircraft or nuclear power systems, can be designed to work with the humans who operate them. Dr. Billings provides a set of simple rules (he calls requirements), based on his experience, that both the machine and the human must comply with. For example, "the human and the machine must understand each others' intentions". This book was originally written as part of project for the FAA and then published as a book in its present form.