Search

The work human decision makers onboard naval platforms have to perform is becoming more demanding due to new types of missions as well as advanced warplanes, more accurate weapons, and long-range sensors. Hence, providing operators with adequate support is an essential requirement for future Navy C2 systems. Because of the high complexity of most operator tasks full automation is not advisable. The final decisions must be made by human operators. Appropriately helping them to create a correct understanding of the situation can make the difference between a catastrophe and doing exactly the right thing. Some particular behavior patterns can be modeled best by rule-based AI, for others more sophisticated approaches have to be considered. Five techniques are described within this paper, whereof three shall be deemed to be potential constituents of the aspired support system. They all have in common that enfolding case-bases are needed to become able to apply them beneficially. A conceivable way to obtain such a case-base is empirical knowledge acquisition by means of a laboratory test bed. Furthermore, means to structure the so-elicited knowledge have to be chosen and evaluated. Utilizing the methodology introduced here could yield helpful support for AAW operators, but yet there is much more research to be done., See also ADM001577. The original document contains color images.

In today's complex, dynamic, and changing military environments, supporting Situation Awareness (SA) of operators is a prerequisite for situation- and task-adequate decision making and action. SA refers to information on three levels that represent relevant elements of the operator environment, element patterns describing complex mission situations, and projections of future states and dynamics of elements. A means for supporting the SA of operators is the adaptive knowledge-based user interface. To develop such interfaces, information on the three different SA levels that operators need to perform their tasks must be specified and modeled. One source from which that information can be acquired are scenarios that have to be developed anyway for system design and operator training. For specifying relevant SA information, a model of the problem domain has been developed that comprises the True World of scenarios, the Sensed Word of detected tracks, and the Deduced World of concluded track information. To uniformly describe these different worlds, an object-oriented approach has been applied that is based on static and dynamic scenario and track objects that are specified mathematically. Attributes and operations of track objects constitute elements and patterns of relevant SA information to be identified. Additionally, the described mathematical model of track objects constitutes the basis for developing a software specification with the object-oriented Unified Modeling Language (UML). Using a Navy Anti-Air Warfare scenario as an example, the application of the developed modeling approach is demonstrated in detail. (2 tables, 5 figures, 12 refs.), See also ADM001577. Presented at the RTO HFM Symposium on "The Role of Humans in Intelligent and Automated Systems," held in Warsaw, Poland, on 7-9 Oct 2002. Published in report number RTO-MP-088. The original document contains color images.

Technology pushes for sensor and weapon systems as well as for command, control, communication, and information systems have increased the amount and complexity of information available while the time to process that information has dramatically decreased% Additionally, recent changes in military situations and doctrines have given rise to the need for computer-based aids that can support human operators in getting situation awareness and reacting to novel complex and rapidly changing situations. A concept has been developed to support the members of the decision making team in combat information centers of the German Navy vessels by knowledge-based user interfaces. Such interfaces will ease the burden of the decision makers in all phases of the military command and control cycle and enhance the effectiveness of the decision making process in novel military scenarios, e.g., in Littoral Warfare, Crisis and Low Intensity Conflicts, or Missions other than War. The paper starts with a general problem description and a framework of operator support possibilities based on a hierarchical structure of human task performance with different levels of situational complexity. It follows the description of a generic support concept by means of knowledge-based user interfaces consisting of a knowledge-based assistance system and an interactive multimedia user interface. Finally, as an example the implementation of the conceptual work into a demonstrator of operator support in naval anti-air warfare situations is presented. With this demonstrator the effectiveness of decision making and action taking support by a knowledge-based user interface could be shown., Presented at the RTO Human Factors and Medicine Panel Symposium, Oslo, Norway, 10-13 Apr 2000, p17-1/17-8. This article is from ADA389629 Usability of Information in Battle Management Operations (1'Exploitation de l'information dans les operations de gestion du champ de bataille)