Future Ability Requirements for Operators in Aviation regarding Monitoring

The research project Aviator 2030 at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) focuses on finding an optimal fit between technical innovations and human operators in future aviation. Due to the increase in automation, accurate and efficient monitoring poses a great challenge to future operators in aviation. As the DLR`s Department of Aviation and Space Psychology is responsible for the selection of pilots and air traffic controllers, our objective for the selection of future personnel is to identify operators monitoring appropriately (OMA). OMA are assumed to monitor in such a way as to enable them to resume control if automation fails. We developed a simulation tool that helps identify future monitoring requirements for pilots and controllers. In our study, we combine eye movement parameters and manual performance data in order to reveal the predictive power of eye movements, standing for monitoring performance, for manual control. Preliminary results of an experiment with job candidates are presented. Personnel selection based on eye movements is innovative and will establish new approaches for assessing selection profiles in future air traffic management (ATM) scenarios.