Initial Efforts Toward Identifying Aviation Alerting System Dissonance

The possibility that different alerting systems transmit conflicting information is increasingly possible as these systems become pervasive in aerospace. This article describes a methodology that has been recently developed to provide a foundation for understanding, identifying, and resolving dissonance between alerting systems. Provided as an example of the system application is the recently proposed airborne conflict management (ACM) system which must operate in conjunction with existing traffic alert and collision avoidance systems (TCAS). Dissonant operating regions for TCAS and ACM are articulated, and it is shown that in some geometrics potentially undesirable TCAS advisories may occur following action taken in response to ACM alerts.