Autonomous Air Traffic Control. c.2000 words
En-route Air Traffic Control (ATC) is the safe management of a body of aircra< which are airborne and
travelling through an (or a sequence of) airspace. This is in contrast to other operaBons, such as landing and
take-off, or devising flight plans before an aircra< is airborne. Managers in the Civil AviaBon Authority (CAA)
of an island country called Westralia are keen to implement autonomic funcBons into their en-route ATC
operaBons covering their surrounding oceanic airspaces. Currently Air Traffic Control (ATC) operaBons in
Westralia are performed manually, with some so<ware support tools such as conflict probes. The Managers
of the country’s CAA have learnt about recent developments in Autonomous and Autonomic Intelligent
Systems (AAIS), and decide it is Bme to make their en-route operaBons completely autonomous, and their
en-route so<ware autonomic.
As part of this development they are considering:
1. The creaBon and use of a Conflict PredicBon SpecificaBon for Westralia (CPSW) as
the STANDARD for aircra< separaBon over Westralia’s huge surrounding ocean.
2. The creaBon and use of an automaBc translator of the CPSW into a program
(OCPSW – the operaBonal CPSW) which will do Conflict PredicBon, (i.e. performing
a conflict probe).
3. Using a Theory Refinement Machine Learning Algorithm to self-maintain the CPSW
4. ImplemenBng a self-management funcBon for en-route ATC which automaBcally
resolves any conflict in an aircra<’s flight plan, by producing a new set of separated
flight plans for aircra<s in the region, and communicates this new flight plan to the
aircra<(s) involved.
Some of the main perceived benefits of this development are:
1. The automaBc translaBon of CPSW will cut out errors in hand coding the Conflict
PredicBon so<ware funcBon
2. The CPSW can be used as a precise, formal standard as a basis for training guides and
communicaBon standards to other parts of Westralia’s ATC operaBons.
3. The automated maintenance, automated translaBon and automated management will
save on costs (less so<ware developers, engineers and ATCOs needed).
4. Overall, producBon of an autonomic ATC system will minimise the need for trained, expensive ATC
staff
TASK
As a top so<ware engineer in Westralia’s CAA, the senior management would like you
to write a short report about the feasibility of this development, and comment on the likely
benefits (include those perceived above) and challenges in the operaBon and
implementaBon of these developments. In parBcular, they would like you to comment on
whether or not they should go ahead with the development at this Bme.
Subsequent secBons should comment on:
– Whether you think the benefits listed above are realisable within the nearest future
– The need to take into account the safety criBcal nature of the applicaBon
– The challenges in verifying and validaBng the resulBng ATC system
– To what extent other CAAs around the world are using or developing autonomous
tools in their en-route ATC operaBons.
In parBcular, the report should discuss the aspects of and issues relaBng to ethics, legality, human
behaviour, safety, trust and security that may arise in deployment of AAIS, and what the implicaBons are for
the development of this autonomous system. Also, the report should be supported in the following way:
– Definitions of terms, context.
– Introduction to the ATC area, and one seam of work in particular that investigated
autonomic properties (self-assessment, self-maintenance) in ATC.
– Non-technical part of autonomous intelligent systems, including societal, behavioural and institutional
challenges.
– Diagrams to support claims.
– Referencing all forms of literature review works.
Conclusion:
Finally, the report should end with a short, well-reasoned recommendaBon on
whether or not the management should proceed in developing a fully autonomous computer system for
managing air traffic operaBons at this Bme.