Communication and Cooperation Analysis in Air Traffic Control

As pointed out by the literature, the recent growing interest in cooperative work studies is motivated by technological and organizational changes and by the design of computer systems for cooperative activity which requires models of human-human cooperation. The analysis of communications between group members is one of the powerful tools to identify and describe the functioning of cooperative activities (Falzon, 1991; van Deale & al., 1991; Reinartz & al., 1989). Cooperative activity (Leplat, 1994), as the activity of a group of people interacting to accomplish a task, requires (1) coordination of individual activities, (2) common representation of the field in which the activity takes place, and (3) communication between group members to exchange information and to define a common representation and language. Cooperative work is characterized by a number of basic issues: the information and the means used to communicate can be ambiguous; the understanding of the intentions of the operators can be altered; and conflicts can generate problems in the task distribution and synchronization. Nevertheless cooperative work and the flexibility of the means used to interact permits the avoidance of conflicts and errors. The analysis of the richness and flexibility of the communication in the working group contributes to the understanding of cooperative activities and the identification of their weaknesses. This paper presents the methodology used to develop a COmmunication MODel in cOoperative work (COMODO) and its features. COMODO is a descriptive model showing the mechanisms supporting the transfer of information in a cooperative working environment. This objective is achieved through a study of the communication process, more precisely of the flow of information amongst operators. COMODO has led to the description and modeling of how, in complex tasks, operators: (a) manage individual and cooperative tasks (b) share several tasks in order to realize one or many joint objectives (c) communicate and exchange the necessary information to carry out these tasks. Air Traffic Control offers an experimental environment for the development of COMODO. The first part of this paper presents a global human-machine communication model which explains data flow in an organization based on working position. This model is illustrated by the Air Traffic Control domain. A methodological approach is then proposed for studying the communications between Approach Control working positions, with regard to cooperative work. The second part of this paper presents the basic features of COMODO as a result of the human communication analysis. Here, two types of cooperation related to the physical separation between working positions, i.e. face-to-face and distance cooperation, are detailed. Two case studies illustrate face-to-face cooperation using the communication flow representation.