A LOW-COST SIMULATION-BASED ATC TRAINER

THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN IBM PC-COMPATIBLE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL TRAINING SYSTEM WITH COMPLETE VOICE INPUT AND OUTPUT IS PROPOSED. THIS SYSTEM, BUILT UPON AN UNDER-$10,000 HARDWARE PLATFORM, WILL BE CAPABLE OF DISPLAYING A REALTIME RADARSCOPE PICTURE OF ANY GEOGRAPHICAL SECTOR IN THE MILITARY OR CIVILIAN ENVIRONMENT. THE SIMULATOR WILL BE CAPABLE OF GENERATING REALISTIC TRAFFIC FLOWS FOR THE SECTOR CHOSEN, COMPLETE WITH "INTELLIGENT" PILOTS WHO TALK BACK USING A SYNTHESIZED VOICE. SPOKEN CONTROL COMMANDS IN STANDARD PHRASEOLOGY WILL BE UNDERSTOOD BY THE 1000-WORD VOCABULARY VOICE RECOGNITION SYSTEM IN REAL TIME AND REFLECTED IN THE BEHAVIOR OF THE SIMULATED AIRCRAFT ONSCREEN. PHASE II WORK WOULD INCLUDE INCREASING THE FIDELITY OF THIS SIMULATION SYSTEM, ADDING AN EXPERT SYSTEM TO ASSIST STUDENT CONFLICT RESOLUTIONS AND AUTOMATE ROUTINE ATC FUNCTIONS, EVALUATING THE SYSTEM FOR TRAINING AT A REAL-WORLD ATC FACILITY, AND DEPLOYING ONE OR MORE SYSTEMS ON A PERMANENT BASIS.