26 September 2002

Psychologist Dr Andrew Neal has won a UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award to develop a computer program aimed at maintaining Australia’s high air safety standards.

The software will use data such as traffic volume and complexity to predict the average time an air traffic controller needs to identify and avert potential conflict between aircraft. Possible uses include risk assessment in deciding safe workloads.

Dr Neal, a senior lecturer in the University’s Key Centre for Human Factors and School of Psychology, is one of a multidisciplinary team of University psychologists and computer scientists working with scientists from Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC).

The Excellence Award will fund tests of the program’s ability to simulate the performance of real air traffic controllers on a conflict detection task.

Dr Neal said controllers used computers to help them maintain a safe, orderly and efficient flow of traffic in their individual sectors. The job included identifying situations (termed “conflicts”) where aircraft would pass within certain distances of each other.

“We’re developing a program which can predict the average time that air traffic controllers will take to identify conflicts,” he said. “This will help in making judgments on the number of aircraft a controller can safely handle at one time.”

Dr Neal said possible commercial uses included assessment of workloads and assessment of safety issues associated with “free flight”.

The “freeflight” proposal is currently under consideration by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

One possibility is that scheduled routes could be replaced by point-to-point flights using on-board collision detection systems to maintain separation. This would radically change the air traffic controller’s role.

The new computer program may also provide a set of tools to use in developing other systems where humans interact with complex software and hardware.

“We’re designing technology to support, rather than replace, humans,” Dr Neal said.

“Computers are unlikely to overtake the human factor in accomplishing complex tasks, but they can boost performance.

"For example Australia currently has the most advanced air traffic management system in the world. Since its launch in 2000 the number of incidents in the area it controls has decreased.”

Media: For more information, contact Dr Neal (telephone 07 3365 6372 or email a.neal@psy.uq.edu.au) or Moya Pennell at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2846 or email m.pennell@uq.edu.au).