Automation's effects on situational awareness in multi-crew air carrier operations

¶ … automation on situational awareness in multi-crew air carrier flight operations. The article begins with a discussion of the concept of situational awareness with regards to its link to operational functions, especially in the aviation industry. This is followed by an analysis of automation of flight operations in light of the use of information technologies in enhancing the safety and efficiency of flight operations. After an analysis of automation of flight operations, the author evaluates the effects of automation on flight operations. The analysis of the effects focuses on both the positive and negative effects of automation on situational awareness. The paper concludes with an analysis of the positive and negative effects of the use of automation and information technologies on situational awareness.

The Impact of Automation on Situational Awareness Multi-Crew Air Carrier Flight Operations

The aviation industry has been characterized by constant search or pursuit for innovations to improve the efficiency and safety of flights. The search has contributed to various implementations that have been established to help the pilot and ease his/her job. One of the major innovations that have been implemented to help ease the pilot's work is automation of certain processes. Before the concept and use of automation, pilots largely depended on paper charts and flight calculators to navigate through the skies. During this period, pilots had to consistently check and re-check to ensure the aircraft was functioning as anticipated and on course. The rapid technological advancements contributed to the development and implementation of automation in order to enhance the operations, safety, and efficiency of flight operations. Automation not only eliminated the charts and calculations but also helped in enhancing pilots' situational awareness. However, there are concerns on the impact of automation on situational awareness, especially in flight operations with multi-crew.

Situational Awareness

Situational awareness is basically defined as understanding what is taking place around you and understanding the present and future significance of that information (Endsley & Jones, 2004, p.13). Awareness is a concept that is always described on the basis of important information for a specific job or objective. Moreover, the idea of situational awareness is always applicable to operational situations where the respective individual must have understanding of certain operations in a given situation. Therefore, the actual definition of situational awareness is the sensitivity of environmental elements within a specific time and space, the understanding of the meaning of these elements, and prediction of their status in the foreseeable future (Endsley & Jones, 2004, p.13).

Situational awareness is a term that emerged from military pilot sector where reaching high levels of situation awareness was identified as a critical and challenging factor in the early history of the aviation industry. Apart from the military pilot segments, the concept is important in the world of air traffic controllers since it is a mental representation of current environmental factors through which pilots make their decisions. Given its significance in decision making, situational awareness has attracted huge attention in the aviation industry. The focus on situational awareness is fueled by the fact that it plays a vital role in the operations, safety, and efficiency of flight operations.

Automation of Flight Operations

As previously mentioned, the aviation industry has been characterized by increased pursuit of innovations to enhance the safety and efficiency of flight operations. The search has culminated in the implementation of various innovations such as automation of certain operations to help the pilot and make his/her work easier. Automation can primarily be described as the use of information technologies and control systems to lessen the need of for human intervention across various operations. The introduction of automation in the aviation industry has mainly focused on lessening human intervention in air traffic and flight control operations. Automation not only enhances the completion of a job but also significantly affects the pilot or other aviation professionals through shifting their tasks from operator to observer.

One of the recent efforts towards automation of flight operations is the implementation of new technologies into the cockpit resulting in cockpit automation. Cockpit automation has in turn changed the nature of the pilot's role on the flight deck to an extent that these professionals have become system managers who evaluate systems and intervene when there is need for changes or in the event of an unexpected situation or incident (Sarter & Woods, 1992, p.304). The use of automation technologies in the cockpit has involved the introduction of cathode ray tubes screens that promote concise presentation of information and enhanced map displays. Aircraft computerization and cockpit automation is current used in multi-crew air carrier flight operations.

The second outcome of the use of automation technologies in the aviation industry is the implementation of Global Positioning System, which made navigation considerably easier. Actually, the International Civil Aviation Organization has developed and implemented Global Navigation Satellite Systems to identify all satellite traversing systems through which aircraft crew conducts onboard position determination based on satellite information (Civil Aviation Advisory Publication, 2006). The use of Global Positioning Systems in navigation of flights is influenced by the fact that they contain three distinct operational elements i.e. aircraft-based user, space, and ground-based control elements. The systems also function based on the ranging and triangulation of a group of satellites that act as succinct reference points. Similar to cockpit automation, the use of Global Positioning Systems has had considerable effects on the role of pilots and other crew in flight operations in light of their situational awareness. Generally, the Global Positioning Systems have enhanced the efficiency of flight operations through making navigation easier.

Effect of Automation

Despite the numerous benefits of automation with regards to improved efficiency of flight operations, there have been numerous concerns on whether automation causes more harm than harm on situational awareness in multi-crew air carrier flight operations. These concerns have been attributed to the impact and potential effects of automation on the performance of aircraft crew. Moreover, the growing concerns have been attributed to the little known nature and root causes of problems that emerge in the interaction between aircraft crew and automation. There are positive and negative effects of automation on situational awareness in multi-crew air carrier flight operations with regards to recent incidents and trends in the aviation industry.

Negative Impacts of Automation on Situational Awareness

While automation is associated with enhanced situational awareness because of the positive effects of information technologies with regards to improved efficiency and reliability, it is also linked to various negative effects. Actually, the negative effects of automation on situational awareness outweigh the positive ones because of the problems that arise in the interactions between crew members and automation.

One of the negative impacts of automation on situational awareness in multi-crew flight operations is that it lessens system awareness. This effect is particularly brought by the impact of cockpit automation on the performance of pilots (Sarter & Woods, 1992, p.303). As previously discussed, cockpit automation affects pilot's performance by changing his/her role on the flight deck where these professionals become system managers evaluating systems and only intervening when necessary. The change of the pilot's role in the flight deck implies that a pilot no longer hand-flies the aircraft but acts indirectly in determining flight operation through issuing commands to the automation. This in turn removes the pilot from the loop of the flight operations, which contribute to decreased system awareness, especially if feedback on the behavior and status of automation is limited.

The second negative impact of automation on situational awareness is poor coordination due to clumsy use of technology or clumsy automation. This kind of automation or use of technology is described as a form of reduced coordination between human and the system or machine (Sarter & Woods, 1992, p.318). The poor coordination, which affects situational awareness, emerges from the fact that automation supports high-workload periods and more complex tasks whereas human activity is seemingly effective in less complex systems and self-paced tasks. The complexity of these systems and need for high-workload periods contribute to weak system feedback and inadequate mental models, which make it difficult for crew members to achieve better system and situational awareness in flight operations.

Moreover, there are certain phases of flight operations that tend to have greater requirements for coordination in order to enhance situational awareness (Wagener & Ison, 2014, p.3). These operational segments such as approach and landing are sometimes characterized by poor coordination because of system complexities and high workloads resulting in poor situational awareness.

Third, automation does not increase situational awareness because of the nature of pilots' work. While automation significantly changes the role of pilots in the flight deck, they still face high workloads because of the nature of their occupation. These demands make it difficult for pilots to have enhanced situational awareness given that managing flight operations is an intense and vigorous work that demands good physical health and mental stability. These crew members are required to be competent and precise in dealing with complex systems onboard aircraft as well as ability to function effectively as part of aircraft crew. As a result, pilots need to focus more on managerial tasks, communication, and computer programming due to automation (Bor, Field & Scragg, 2002, p.240). This makes it difficult to achieve enhanced situational awareness since automation increases the demands of pilots whose work is already very demanding.

The fourth negative effect of automation on situation awareness is that it contributes to poor situation awareness. The poor situation awareness is brought by the fact that pilots are required to deal with complex changes to programmed aspects in situation where manual supersede would be the most appropriate to guarantee flight safety (Amalberti, 1998, p.179). Pilots lose their awareness of passing time, awareness of the situation, and flight path because they have to deal with deception with the flight management system. These problems particularly tend to occur in final approach with runway changes and are regarded as the major cause of numerous incidents.

Analysis

The use of automation in the aviation industry has had several positive effects on flight operations. Actually, automated systems in the aviation industry have been effectively used in various segments of transportation to enhance operator workload ability and system safety (Dao et. al., 2009, p.738). Nonetheless, automation has also had considerable negative impacts on an operator's acquisition of information, information analysis, decision making, and action. It is quite evident that automation does not entirely deal with negative human factors in aviation industry and flight operations. Automation is associated with numerous human factors problems because of the changes in habits and procedures. These human factors problems make it difficult to achieve good coordination between humans and machine resulting in poor situational awareness.

Conclusion

Situational awareness is an issue that has attracted considerable attention in the aviation industry given its role in enhancing the safety and efficiency of flight operations. This concept is mainly associated with the ability to assess environmental situation effectively and make effective decisions to deal with them. There are various initiatives that have been adopted to help enhance situational awareness in flight operations including the adoption of information technologies and automation. Automation has contributed to enhanced situational awareness in multi-crew flight operations through improved efficiency and reliability. However, automation has negatively affected situational awareness in multi-crew flight operations by increasing complexities, contributing to poor coordination between crew members, and increasing human factors problems.