A simulation based study of subliminal control for air traffic management

Under the so called Subliminal Control concept, an automated system, commanding minor speed adjustments imperceptible by the Air Traffic Controller (ATC), tries to keep the Air Traffic Controller’s risk perception low, emulating a “lucky traffic”. In this paper we outline such a concept and investigate several implementation considerations of subliminal control. A proposed subliminal controller is tested against several encounter geometries for level flights in simulations using a stochastic environment that comprises wind forecast uncertainties. The results demonstrate that subliminal control has the potential to reduce the workload of the ATC in several cases.