An analysis of automation for monitoring Area Navigation (RNAV) and required navigation performance (RNP) terminal operations

As stated in the roadmap for performance-based navigation, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is committed to implementing area navigation (RNAV) and required navigation performance (RNP) procedures throughout the National Airspace System (NAS). RNAV and RNP procedures provide lateral guidance as well as vertical and speed restrictions at waypoints where necessary along arrival or departure procedures. As compared to conventional vectoring operations where the terminal controller issues heading, speed, and altitude clearances, RNAV procedures reduce the number of clearances issued by air traffic control (ATC). The MITRE Corporationpsilas Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) in coordination with ATC subject matter experts from FAA operational facilities has conducted research to define automation needs for monitoring RNAV and RNP operations. The needs focus on ensuring controllers maintain situation awareness in environments with high RNAV and RNP participation and increasing traffic levels. One major function of the automation is to provide an alert to a radar controller when an aircraft is deviating from its assigned RNAV or RNP procedure. This paper presents the automation needs associated with monitoring RNAV and RNP operations, and the results from human-in-the-loop experiments that measured latency times in detecting deviation events in simulated RNAV and RNP environments with and without the alerting automation. Results indicate that latency times associated with detecting pilot deviations were reduced in conditions with the monitoring automation. Subjective workload measures were not different in any significant way.