Some Challenges in Air Traffic Management Research
Colin Meckiff
Eurocontrol Experimental Centre, Brétigny sur Orge, France
Abstract. Air traffic
management is a highly complex system of systems. At its heart is air traffic
control, and the word ‘control’ might suggest to engineers that its detailed workings can be described as a set of equations and feedback loops. This is far from being the case - our understanding of the system’s behaviour to date is generally captured only by rather crude models or, at a lower level, esoteric cognitive approaches.
We are nevertheless being asked to redesign the system to make it more efficient, to reduce costs and environmental impact, to increase capacity and so on. The fact that ATM and ATC are today so poorly understood suggests a ‘target-rich’ environment for researchers. This talk will discuss some of the specific challenges that we face and set them in the context of current European initiatives.
