Human performance and strategies while solving an aircraft routing and sequencing problem: an experimental approach
As airport resources are stretched to meet increasing demand for services, effective use of ground infrastructure is increasingly critical for ensuring operational efficiency. Work in operations research has produced algorithms providing airport tower controllers with guidance on optimal timings and...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer
2018
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50952/ |
| _version_ | 1848798376313749504 |
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| author | Argyle, Elizabeth M. Houghton, Robert J. Atkin, Jason de Maere, Geert Moore, Terry Morvan, Herve |
| author_facet | Argyle, Elizabeth M. Houghton, Robert J. Atkin, Jason de Maere, Geert Moore, Terry Morvan, Herve |
| author_sort | Argyle, Elizabeth M. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | As airport resources are stretched to meet increasing demand for services, effective use of ground infrastructure is increasingly critical for ensuring operational efficiency. Work in operations research has produced algorithms providing airport tower controllers with guidance on optimal timings and sequences for flight arrivals, departures, and ground movement. While such decision support systems have the potential to improve operational efficiency, they may also affect users’ mental workload, situation awareness, and task performance. This work sought to identify performance outcomes and strategies employed by human decision makers during an experimental airport ground movement control task with the goal of identifying opportunities for enhancing user-centered tower control decision support systems. To address this challenge, thirty novice participants solved a set of vehicle routing problems presented in the format of a game representing the airport ground movement task practiced by runway controllers. The games varied across two independent variables, network map layout (representing task complexity) and gameplay objective (representing task flexibility), and verbal protocol, visual protocol, task performance, workload, and task duration were collected as dependent variables. A logistic regression analysis revealed that gameplay objective and task duration significantly affected the likelihood of a participant identifying the optimal solution to a game, with the likelihood of an optimal solution increasing with longer task duration and in the less flexible objective condition. In addition, workload appeared unaffected by either independent variable, but verbal protocols and visual observations indicated that high-performing participants demonstrated a greater degree of planning and situation awareness. Through identifying human behavior during optimization problem solving, the work of tower control can be better understood, which, in turn, provides insights for developing decision support systems for ground movement management. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:18:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-50952 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:18:47Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Springer |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-509522020-05-08T09:15:34Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50952/ Human performance and strategies while solving an aircraft routing and sequencing problem: an experimental approach Argyle, Elizabeth M. Houghton, Robert J. Atkin, Jason de Maere, Geert Moore, Terry Morvan, Herve As airport resources are stretched to meet increasing demand for services, effective use of ground infrastructure is increasingly critical for ensuring operational efficiency. Work in operations research has produced algorithms providing airport tower controllers with guidance on optimal timings and sequences for flight arrivals, departures, and ground movement. While such decision support systems have the potential to improve operational efficiency, they may also affect users’ mental workload, situation awareness, and task performance. This work sought to identify performance outcomes and strategies employed by human decision makers during an experimental airport ground movement control task with the goal of identifying opportunities for enhancing user-centered tower control decision support systems. To address this challenge, thirty novice participants solved a set of vehicle routing problems presented in the format of a game representing the airport ground movement task practiced by runway controllers. The games varied across two independent variables, network map layout (representing task complexity) and gameplay objective (representing task flexibility), and verbal protocol, visual protocol, task performance, workload, and task duration were collected as dependent variables. A logistic regression analysis revealed that gameplay objective and task duration significantly affected the likelihood of a participant identifying the optimal solution to a game, with the likelihood of an optimal solution increasing with longer task duration and in the less flexible objective condition. In addition, workload appeared unaffected by either independent variable, but verbal protocols and visual observations indicated that high-performing participants demonstrated a greater degree of planning and situation awareness. Through identifying human behavior during optimization problem solving, the work of tower control can be better understood, which, in turn, provides insights for developing decision support systems for ground movement management. Springer 2018-04-03 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50952/1/Argyle_et_al-2018-Cognition%2C_Technology_%26_Work.pdf Argyle, Elizabeth M., Houghton, Robert J., Atkin, Jason, de Maere, Geert, Moore, Terry and Morvan, Herve (2018) Human performance and strategies while solving an aircraft routing and sequencing problem: an experimental approach. Cognition, Technology and Work . ISSN 1435-5566 Problem solving; Human behavior; Air traffic control; Routing and scheduling https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-018-0480-4 doi:10.1007/s10111-018-0480-4 doi:10.1007/s10111-018-0480-4 |
| spellingShingle | Problem solving; Human behavior; Air traffic control; Routing and scheduling Argyle, Elizabeth M. Houghton, Robert J. Atkin, Jason de Maere, Geert Moore, Terry Morvan, Herve Human performance and strategies while solving an aircraft routing and sequencing problem: an experimental approach |
| title | Human performance and strategies while solving an aircraft routing and sequencing problem: an experimental approach |
| title_full | Human performance and strategies while solving an aircraft routing and sequencing problem: an experimental approach |
| title_fullStr | Human performance and strategies while solving an aircraft routing and sequencing problem: an experimental approach |
| title_full_unstemmed | Human performance and strategies while solving an aircraft routing and sequencing problem: an experimental approach |
| title_short | Human performance and strategies while solving an aircraft routing and sequencing problem: an experimental approach |
| title_sort | human performance and strategies while solving an aircraft routing and sequencing problem: an experimental approach |
| topic | Problem solving; Human behavior; Air traffic control; Routing and scheduling |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50952/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50952/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50952/ |