FAA

All of us who have traveled by air are familiar with the congestion associated with airports throughout the country. Although this congestion can frequently cause numerous flight delays, it is far less troublesome than air fatalities caused by faulty equipment or human error. The system that is responsible for safely managing this highly complex traffic matrix is the ground to ground and air to ground communication system used by the FAA.

A number of years ago our design team assisted Gould Inc.(now part of Nippon) developing a single action touch screen communication system for the FAA. Our objective was to comprehensively review the US government’s specifications for replacing the antiquated ground to ground and ground to air communications systems with a state of the art alternative. The new system would virtually eliminate human error and provide redundant backup for maximum safety.

Extensive examination of the high detailed 200 page specification report and on site visits to numerous air traffic control centers provided our design team with a comprehensive insight of the system requirements.

Seating, lighting, overall layout and daily activities within these centers provided us with extensive information pertaining to critical human factors considerations.

In addition, these site visits also provided the design team with valuable technical information pertaining to component arrangements, support, cooling, installation and service requirements…………

Examination of a video prepared by the government aided in the explanation of the new system purpose, operation and interaction with a control tower specialist. A small edited segment of this video has been provided here.

A brief description of our proposed design solution has been provided to you in the following pictures.

One of the criteria for the replacement upgrade was easy integration within current facilities and rack support structures. These concept sketches illustrate the integration of touch screen plasma displays within existing work stations as well as new systems.

Specifying three independent touch screen modules for each communication center provided uninterrupted communication if one of the modules failed. Under such conditions software would automatically switch all communications to two modules while the failed unit would be simply unplugged and immediately replaced.

Concepts illustrating proposed plasma screen module construction and its integration within a cabinet were also created.

However, one of the most challenging design tasks was developing an easily operated control panel. Numerous concepts were developed and refined before an idea layout was attained. The final layout which graphically grouped specific functions to a single communication frequency was the most successful.

This extensive research project provides an excellent example demonstrating our ability to analyze, design and present complex systems based on numerous critical ergonomic criteria.