NEWS

The report of MINIMA’s Final Projects Results (D5.2) was completed on May 11th, 2018. The full document can also be found in our documents section. This report on Final Project Results gives evidence on the overall MINIMA project with respect to the work done from 01 May 2016 to 30 April 2018. It includes reports about the work done in each of the work packages, the outcome of the project’s empirical evaluation study, and its further impact on ATM research in general. The core results presented in the document can be summarised as follows: Summyry with motivation and problem statement. Project overview with context, scope and the work performed in each work package namely Review and Concept Development, Implementation, Evaluation, Dissemination, Management and Ethics Requirements. Furthermore, the key project results and technical deliverables are explained. Links to SESAR Programme with maturity assessment. Conclusions and lessons learned with recommendations for next steps.

On April 23, 2018 the MINIMA team met with SJU for the Close-Out-Meeting in Brussels. SJU was thankful for the achievements and the conduction of the project during the last two years. Therefore, MINIMA will be closed as planned on April 30. However, this website remains online for another 5 years and also informs about following publications.

We are happy to announce the release of the 4th MINIMA Newsletter. In the newsletter, we summarise the results of the data analysis from MINIMA’s Evaluation Study. Furthermore, we report MINIMA’s participation in the ICATMA 2018 in April. Finally, we are happy to announce MINIMA’s upcoming Final Review and Close-Out Meeting which will be held at the SJU Headquarters in Brussels on April 24.

The report of MINIMA’s Evaluation Results (D3.2) was completed on March 29th, 2018. The full document can also be found in our documents section. This report on Evaluation Results gives evidence on the MINIMA objectives with respect to the validation trials conducted from 06 – 17 November 2017 at the Virtual Reality Lab of the University of Bologna’s premises in Forlì, Italy. The core results presented in the document can be summarised as follows: Controller vigilance decreased when they were not actively involved with the task but only acted as a mere Monitor. Without any changes to the automation system, vigilance would continue to decrease over time. The decrease in vigilance was reversed through the Vigilance & Attention Controller. Usage of the Vigilance and Attention Controller in the SOLUTION scenario caused Controllers to recognise incoming aircraft earlier Controllers to more carefully process Information Controllers to perceive their task to be: More demanding and effortful Less frustrating and easier to perform good in Controllers to be less likely to get distracted by task related interference or task unrelated thought

MINIMA – Advisory Board (AB) Meeting Introduction Note: A PDF copy of this article can be downloaded here. MINIMA (MItigating Negative Impacts of Monitoring high levels of Automation) is a research project funded by the SESAR Joint Undertaking under the grant agreement No 699282 in the framework of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The MINIMA research team is composed by the DLR – Coordinator, ONERA, and the University of Bologna. BrainSigns is a neuroscientists company involved as third party. The project started on May 1st, 2016 and will end on April 30th, 2018. As envisaged by both SESAR JU and HALA! Research Network, higher levels of automation will help ATCOs to deal with increasingly complex airspace scenarios, enabling them to manage complex areas in a safe and efficient way. On the other hand we will have to cope with high automation-related side effects such as the negative effects of monitoring tasks and principally with the OOTL (Out of the Loop) phenomena. The general objective of MINIMA was to improve our comprehension of the OOTL performance problem especially according to a future air traffic scenario. Furthermore, MINIMA developed tools to detect and compensate the negative impact of this phenomenon. In order to involve the stakeholders, the Consortium planned to invite representatives of ANSPs and Research Organizations to take part to the MINIMA Advisory Board (AB). Therefore, two AB Meetings have been organised in order to foster the discussion among the consortium members and the AB Meeting Members. The First MINIMA AB Meeting has been held in Delft in November 2016, during the SESAR Innovation Days. The objective of the first meeting was to collect impressions on the objectives and on the methodology identified by the consortium members to further develop the project activities. The Second Advisory Board of MINIMA has been organized on March 8th 2018 at the Feira de Madrid (Spain) during the 2018 World ATM Congress. Five experts coming from ANSPs, Research Organizations and Research Companies participated on a voluntary base to the Second Advisory Board Meeting of MINIMA. Being close to the end of the project, participants have been presented with the results of the MINIMA evaluation experiments and then they have been asked to support the project through the active participation to the discussion concerning the following main questions: Did the project actually achieve its initial objectives? Which are the main areas of […]

We are happy to announce the release of the 3rd MINIMA Newsletter. In the newsletter, we summarise the work and progress within the third period of MINIMA. Specifically, we report the successful conduction of the evaluation study in Forlì, Italy together with 15 active air traffic controllers from Italy’s Air Navigation Service Provider ENAV. Furthermore, we report MINIMA’s participation in the SESAR Innovation Days 2017 in November and the Agency Research Team’s Workshop on Automation in October. Finally, we are happy to announce MINIMA’s upcoming 2nd Advisory Board Meeting which will be held at the World ATM Congress 2018 in Madrid on March 08.  

From November 06 – 17, the Integrated Vigilance and Attention Controller developed for MINIMA was put to the test in Forlì, Italy. Together with 15 active air traffic controllers from Italy’s Air Navigation Service Provider ENAV, it was evaluated to which extent the MINIMA concept can help to keep human operators ‘in-the-loop’ in high-level automation environments. Each controller completed the two-day study design consisting of a training- and an experimental session. During training, participants were introduced with the task environment and the adaptive automation system. In the experimental session, each participant completed scenarios with and without the MINIMA concept. In the baseline scenario, automation was constantly kept at a high level to examine its negative impact on vigilance and attention. Examination of the latter was based on electroencephalography and eye tracking data. In the second scenario using the MINIMA concept, vigilance and attention data were used as input for the Integrated Vigilance and Attention Controller. This way, the task automation level was adapted to the controllers’ state of mind to keep them ‘in-the-loop’, i. e. to maintain a high level of vigilance and attention at all times. Data collected throughout the study will serve to evaluate both the usefulness and feasibility of the MINIMA concept. The team of MINIMA would like to thank all of the ENAV controllers who participated in this study. Their support was of the utmost importance to MINIMA’s success.

The Evaluation Plan (D3.1) was completed on November 9th, 2017. The full document can also be found in the documents section. This deliverable describes the evaluation plan for the planned human-in-the-loop study. In order to evaluate the performance differences between the MINIMA Solution and Baseline scenario, participants, procedures, sequence of events, material, and dependent variables are outlined. More concrete the experimental design of the crucial activities of Validation of the MINIMA prototype is described: the experiments aim to evaluate the possibility of measuring online the actual vigilance and attentive level of the Air Traffic Controller by measuring his/her brain activity and ocular movements, and to use such neurometrics to trigger Adaptive Automation solutions implemented in the highly automated Terminal Manoeuvring Area they are facing. The expected outcome is that such prototype will be able to keep the Air Traffic Controllers performance on a high level and to ensure safe operations. The results will be presented and discussed in the Evaluation Results (D3.2).