Open AccessFatigue Minimization Work Shift Scheduling for Air Traffic Controllers
Author(s) -
Ta Chung Wang,
Guo Chuan Ke
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
international journal of automation and smart technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.148
H-Index - 10
ISSN - 2223-9766
DOI - 10.5875/ausmt.v3i2.185
Subject(s) - aviation , air traffic control , scheduling (production processes) , minification , air traffic controller , computer science , schedule , aviation safety , work (physics) , operations research , engineering , operations management , mechanical engineering , programming language , aerospace engineering , operating system
It is common for Air Traffic Controllers to control air traffic during the night and to experience fatigue. Although fatigue is not the direct cause of aviation accidents, 21 percent of accidents are fatigue-related. Therefore countries and companies have tried to regulate work hours to avoid extreme fatigue, thus decreasing human error resulting from fatigue. However, these regulations may not reflect that actual fatigue variation and fatigue levels can be decreased still more by scheduling appropriately. This paper focuses on optimal work shift scheduling to reduce air traffic controller fatigue. First, a mathematical model is established to describe fatigue levels. The objective function is to reduce the fatigue peak produced by work shifts as much as possible. Various constraints, such as holidays and manpower requirements are considered. The optimization problem is then solved using integer programming. We take a sample schedule and draw conclusions by comparing our results with the original fatigue levels