ATMS 2000: hybrid automation or a lights out traffic management center?

Because of rapid advances in information and automation technology, traffic management center (TMC) design is in a period of rapid evolution. Larger numbers of more capable traffic and environmental sensors are being fielded. Data fusion and information processing equipment are beginning to exploit this new quantity and quality of information. Automation of routine tasks may help to moderate peaks in operator workload, and new information channels may provide more opportunities for informing the driver. Selecting the appropriate level of automation for the TMC is a major challenge. Experience with manufacturing and process control industries suggests that the lights out factory, in which there are no humans in the control loops, may become a reality; visionaries are beginning to discuss an analogous lights out TMC. The transportation system TMC, however, must control variation and deviation from the norm in many more dimensions than a factory does. In the near term, then, the TMC design philosophy should support user-centered hybrid automation