Date: 202009
Local time of day: 1201-1800
Location: CLE.TRACON, OH
Aircraft: Medium Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Flight plan: IFR
Flight phase: Cruise
Airspace: Class B CLE; Class E ZOB
ATC / advisory: TRACON CLE
Reporter organization: Government
Reporter function: Approach
Reporter qualification: Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Human factors: Communication Breakdown; Human-Machine Interface
Anomaly: ATC Issue All Types; Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Detector: Automation Air Traffic Control; Person Air Traffic Control
Result: General None Reported / Taken
Contributing factors: ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings; Human Factors
Primary problem: ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings

Narrative: I was working both South and West sectors combined.  I was moderately busy working many VFR's; one or two IFRs; and two practice approaches.  The traffic was not overly complex; but I had to keep a good scan for traffic advisories due to many VFRs in the area.  Earlier I was even busier with more traffic resulting in a split of the airspace while losing our main frequency and dealing with several automated handoff problems.  We have fusion radar with 7 radars acquiring aircraft and I had at least a half dozen non ARTS (Automated Radar Terminal System) tracks resulting in adjacent airspace calling about 'handoff.'  There were also numerous wrong automated handoffs from adjacent airspace; i.e. aircraft should be handing off to S scope; but is in hand off status to D scope.  I had to slew and correct over a dozen bad handoffs.  I can only type and slew so fast (MF handoff OK S slew enter) while working a busier session.   That's how great the technology was working that day and may have led to the airspace violation.  Over on W airspace I saw Aircraft X with white coloration and a C tag indicating it would be handing off to me from CMH.  I grabbed the strip and noticed it was landing just outside W airspace in Toledo airspace.  I kept my scan going.  Numerous aircraft needed instructions on the S airspace.  By the time I got back to the Aircraft X it was 2 miles in my airspace flashing.  I accepted the handoff and descended the Aircraft X per the LOA.  A simple airspace violation by an IFR aircraft that I could have prevented.  I do not know if automated handoff was an issue on this; but it's pretty easy for a flashing white data block to catch your eye.  CMH may have had an issue on their end trying to get the aircraft to handoff to us.   Our facility has sent hundreds of reports about our automation issues. HUNDREDS.  We still get numerous wrong handoff status aircraft (flashing to D scope when it needs to flash to S scope).  We reconfigured the scopes twice on this day just to see if it was a configuration problem.  This was not an issue.  If we are to have this problem fixed then whoever we send these reports to; they and their team need [to] fix the computers and how they process our inbound aircraft to determine which scopes they go to.  We combined Akron Canton radar and Cleveland radar over a year ago and are still having problems.  Its a distraction that increases your workload.  Automation should make my job easier; right now; at CLE...it isn't.




Synopsis: CLE TRACON Controller reported automation issues resulting in airspace violations and increased workload.