A General Area Air Traffic Controller Simulation Using Colour Graphics,

The increased speed of aircraft and a greater density of air traffic are overtaxing air traffic controllers. Automation of some portions of the controllers information and the use of colour to highlight dangerous situations will make the controllers work easier and possibly more accurate. One of the major aims of the study is to show that the use of a different colours to indicate varying distances between aircraft is a definite improvement over a monochrome display. The other major aim is to study the advantages and disadvantages of vector display and raster display technologies when applied to the air traffic controller scenario. A new set of graphics display routines was developed to be used for the simulation. Much consideration was given to the best methods to optimize the display routines, with attention given to real-time constraints. Originator-supplied keywords Secondary display, Colour graphics, Air traffic control, Programming guide, Vector refresh display, Raster refresh display, Monochrome display comparison, Simulation, and Interaction.