Projects

The Pre-operational MTCD Validation Project was intended to assess the effect of MTCD on controller workload, working methods, airspace procedures and capacity prior to its full implementation in the operational ATM environment. Since RTS had already been carried out at EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre in 1999 and 2000 to test MTCD, the purpose of the Pre-operational MTCD Validation Project was to further validate MTCD as it moved from the development to the pre-operational phase. Specifically, the project had the aim to validate a pre-operational implementation of MTCD in “active shadow mode” and “advanced shadow mode” conditions, with differing traffic densities and levels of complexity. For this reason three validation sessions were arranged respectively at Malmö (Sweden), Rome ACC (Italy) and Maastricht UAC (The Netherlands). The first of these validation sessions was carried out at Malmö ACC in March 2002 and was based on Active Shadow Mode. During the trials a team of two Air Traffic Controllers, namely a Planner and an Tactical Controller, was required to use the MTCD in active shadow mode conditions, while at the same time another team of operational controllers was in charge of managing the traffic using the system commonly used in Malmö ACC. The second and third trial sessions were conducted respectively at Rome ACC (April-May 2003) and Maastricht UAC (Nov-Dec 2003 and March-April 2004). What distinguished these second and third validation sessions from the one in Malmö was the fact to be based not only on Active Shadow Mode but also on Advanced Shadow Mode. This means that in particular moments of the trials the team managing the measured sector with MTCD were also in charge of controlling the traffic, with the monitoring of the operational team managing the mirrored sector. The role of the operational team in these cases mainly consisted in updating the local system if necessary and to provide a prompt backup in case of failure of the trial platform or operational problems.

Deep Blue role

Deep Blue was involved in the portion of the project, concerning the Shadow Mode Trials at Rome ACC (July 2002 - October 2003).Two trial session were conducted at Rome ACC, in which MTCD was combined with the EATM HMI and the ITI (Italian Interface) HMI respectively. Deep Blue supplied the project with the validation team in charge of the organisation, conduct, analysis and report of the shadow mode trials based on ITI (April 28^th to May 16^th  2003). This team was deeply integrated into the project team and its main tasks consisted in:

• preparing the Local Validation Plan for the Rome ACC ITI MTCD Shadow Mode Trials
• managing the execution of the trial and the data collection process
• analysing qualitative and quantitative data collected during the trials
• summarising the trial results into a validation report
• disseminating the trial results during the MTCD Open Days (Rome ACC, May 21^st 2003)

In 9 working days, a total amount of 25 hours and 06 minutes was conducted in Shadow Mode, in particular:

• 7hrs16 were spent in Active Shadow Mode;
• 12hrs50 were spent in Advanced Shadow Mode;
• 5hrs were spent in Active Shadow Mode with the sector split in two due to the high traffic density.

The relatively high figures related to the time spent in Active Shadow Mode was mainly dependent on the need to start and conclude each Trial session in Active Shadow Mode. In fact due to the delicacy of the Trials environment and to the need to have a very high level of mutual and situational awareness among the Trial Team and the Operational Team, it was decided to start and conclude each Trial session in Active Shadow Mode conditions, in order to allow the Trial Team to get involved in the ATC activity and to acquire the necessary situation awareness. The high figure of Advanced Shadow Mode witnesses instead the high level of user acceptability and domain suitability of both MTCD and trial conditions recoded during the trials. Both aspects of the trial, namely the new tool introduced, and the new experimental setting were appreciated by the air traffic controllers involved in the trials, who became quickly familiar with both of them. The results of the Rome trials were used as input for the following session of trials conducted at Maastricht UAC with higher level of traffic density and complexity.

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