Communications with Operational Context and Knowledge for Target Audio Identification Learning (COCKTAIL)

Air Traffic Controllers (ACs) perform cognitively demanding tasks in high pressure situations when ensuring the safety of aircraft. In the Navy, Air Traffic Control (ATC) is complicated by the variety of aircraft and the challenges of air traffic control for military air traffic environments. The audio environment is similarly complex. Communications can overlap, and ACs must focus on one target speaker. Because of the responsibility and complexity of the AC’s job, it’s essential that they are provided with rigorous, realistic training to prepare them for the demands of operational settings. ATC Instructors need an easy-to-use tool that generates realistic training communications that can be tailored to a variety of training scenarios and provides data on student communicative performance. Charles River Analytics proposes to design and demonstrate Communications with Operational Context and Knowledge for Target Audio Identification Learning (COCKTAIL). COCKTAIL is a module for Air Traffic Control training platforms that uses systemic functional grammar to provide semantically rich and contextual target and non-target air communications for Air Traffic Controller training. It uses a coordinated, intuitive Human-Machine Interface to enable Instructors to modify the content and context of the training communications and enable Instructors and Students to review communicative performance.