Carl Westin

Summary Strategic Conformance: Exploring Acceptance of Individual-Sensitive Automation for Air Traffic Control Carl Albert Lennart Westin L IKE many complex and time-critical domains, air traffic control (ATC) is facing a fundamental modernization that builds on the use of more advanced automa- tion (represented by SESAR in Europe and NextGen in the United States). The current function allocation-based relationship between controller and machine is envisioned to evolve to a more fluid, continuous and mutually coordinated team re- lationship. Consequently, the controller is expected to assume a supervisory and monitoring role, while relinquishing much of the tactical “hands-on” tasks to au- tomation. ATC automation, in turn, is expected to grow in intelligence and its cog- nitive abilities to become more of a team member providing decision support and acting more autonomously. In association to these changes, one of the most press- ing human factors challenges is how we can design automation that is embraced, accepted and trusted by the controller. With automated systems becoming increasingly cognitively mature, they are likely to, in many ways, impersonate a persona with its own behavior and person- ality. Operators are likely to perceive these systems more as a humanized character and less as a technological tool. This trend is evident from current intelligent per- sonal assistants, such as Apple’s Siri , Microsoft’s Cortana , and the Google Assis- tant . In fiction we have seen future visions, such as the witty and sarcastic TARS robot in the movie Interstellar , the curious and seductive Samantha operating sys- tem in the movie Her , and the calm and reassuring HAL 9000 in the movie 2001: A