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A technique is presented to cluster geospatial features on an electronic display and determine a meaningful measure of display clutter. An algorithm previously developed by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) to cluster objects in sidescan imagery has been modified to cluster any displayed features in three dimensions: geospatial location (x, y) and color (z). This paper presents preliminary results of the clustering algorithm and cluster density calculations for a series of electronic displays with varying levels of clutter. The clutter metric correlates with preliminary, subjective clutter rankings. Our next step in validating this method will be correlating the metric with user performance., Proceedings of the Industry Engineering and Management Systems (IEMS) 2006 Conference, 13-15 Mar, Cocoa Beach, FL. The original document contains color images.

An electronic mapping system, installed on a vehicle, can provide an accurate and visual depiction of the operating environment to the vehicle operator. This enhanced situational awareness (SA) is useful in critical decision-making and operational safety. The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has developed and tested a moving-map (MM) system based on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and government-off-the- shelf (GOTS) software for amphibious assault vehicles. The MM system consists of a computer, display -and software depicting the position of the vehicle, obtained via the Global Position System (GPS), as an icon overlaid on a geo-registered map. This configuration can be run in either north-up or track-up mode. In north-up mode, the map is always displayed with north at the top of the display, and the icon moves as the position of the vehicle changes. In track-up mode, the map moves as the direction of travel changes with the forward direction at the top of the display. In this mode, the icon remains stationary over the moving map.

Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAV) drivers have only a small portal through which to navigate a lane. Therefore, their ability to attend to outside visual cues, such as marker buoys, maybe seriously diminished by physical barriers such as sea spray, darkness, fog, and other factors. Landing craft crew workload can be intense: the driver has numerous electronic devices to monitor, up to 18 infantry Marines to transport, and a relatively narrow lane in which to safely navigate. Thus, any new systems to be introduced must be very easy to interpret and understand. A new navigational system for these platforms should "be capable of conveying critical information concerning navigation ? in a manner that is easily interpretable under often stressful conditions' (Lohrenz, et. al.). There is minimal space inside AAVs, with just enough room for a predetermined number of Marines and their equipment. The device should be small and unobtrusive to minimally hinder normal operations. Assault and landing craft can be very difficult to control. Waves, currents, wind, and the speed of the vehicle all factor into this challenge. A digital navigation tool, such as a moving-map, could aid a driver in controlling the vehicle by displaying the vehicle's current location and track, along with upcoming waypoints and lane boundaries (e.g., if the craft tends to drift left, then try to stay to the right side of the lane). To meet the demands and concerns of mine countermeasures and amphibious communities, NRL is investigating various mapping systems and developing software to compress different map types and imagery into a displayable format.

High-resolution imagery can be stored on the computer in digital form as a picture, for example, a digital raster map image file. These images then can be geo-registered by computing coefficients from points with known latitude and longitude locations. Features such as roads and airports can be extracted by applying image-processing techniques to the geo-registered raster image. Attributes describing these features and their geographical locations are stored in a "vector feature database." The vector feature database contains many feature types and is considered accurate to a given map scale. In a realtime processing system there is a need to input attributes and their locations and subsequently retrieve such feature attributes from the database with minimum processing time. The overall size of the database is also a consideration. This paper explores the design and construction of a vector feature database to 1) optimize the size of the database by reducing the number of attributes while still maintaining an adequate and unique description of the feature, and 2) enable high-speed input and retrieval of features. Several data structures that might be used to construct the database are discussed, including hash tables, binary-trees, quad-trees, and R-trees. Ultimately a quadtree structure modified to use geographic bitmaps is implemented and evaluated.

The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is testing and demonstrating a prototype moving-map system on amphibious vehicles and landing craft to aid the location neutralization and navigation around mines and obstacles in the surf and beach zone. NRL proposed that a moving-map would improve crew situational awareness and communications thereby improving precise lane navigability (and reducing the requisite lane width). Two platforms were targeted for moving-map tests: Landing Craft Utility and Amphibious Assault Vehicles., The original document contains color images. All DTIC reproductions will be in black and white.

The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Moving Map (MM) navigation system integrates relatively low cost, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) DGPS/GPS hardware with government off-the-shelf (GOTS) moving-map software. The system consists of a DGPS/GPS antenna and receiver capable of establishing exact position(s) within 5-meter accuracy. DGPS/GPS data is processed by a high performance, ruggedized, water-resistant computer running segments of the Falcon View program from the Portable Flight Planning System (PFPS) software suite. The system can be loaded with a full range of military standard format charts from the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and various conversion chart imports (such as georectified GEOTIFF formats) of other non-military standard commercial products. Overlays depicting the battlefield geometry are used to enhance situational awareness., The original document contains color images. All DTIC reproductions will be in black and white.

The Tactical Aircraft Moving Map Capability (TAMMAC) Program (NAVAIR PMA-209) has identified the use of vector map products as a high priority growth item. The TAMMAC Program will conduct an EME) effort during FY03-FY05 to incorporate the use of vector map data, specifically, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency's (NIMA) Vector Product Format (VPF) standard. In support of this effort, the Naval Research Laboratory was tasked to evaluate the potential functional benefits of vector map data and specific NIMA vector map products. This study focused on the functional aspect of using vector maps in the cockpit. The results from this effort are to help develop and refine the implementation requirements of vector maps as a growth item in TAMMAC and influence requirements for future map displays. In addition, the results are to help segregate the mission planning aspects of vector map mission planning from cockpit functional needs., The original document contains color images. All DTIC reproductions will be in black and white.

The U.S. Navy has identified the need for an accurate, user-friendly navigation device to guide amphibious craft drivers. The standard navigation equipment in these craft has proven inadequate. Problems associated with the current navigation processes include, but are not limited to, low visibility, complex task management, and cramped internal space. A moving map system provides the user with an accurate and visual depiction of the operating environment. This enhances both the driver's and the navigator's situational awareness, which is required for critical decision-making and operational safety. The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has been developing and testing moving-map devices hosted on commercial hardware and software in an effort to demonstrate such a navigation system on a variety of platforms. This system would provide helpful information to the craft operator, including determining position, displaying position, aiding in controlling position, and displaying waypoints., Pub. in Proceedings of the Industrial Engineering & Management Symposium, p2-6 July 2003. Presented at the Industrial Engineering & Management Symposium held in Cocoa Beach, FL on July 2003.

Amphibious landing operations that are being conducted in a mined environment require the use of navigation lanes that have been cleared of mines. The amount of time required to clear mines is determined by the width of the lanes to be cleared where lane width is determined by the ability of the assault craft to successfully navigate within a cleared lane (i.e., its lane navigation capability). Therefore, vehicles with stronger navigation capabilities allow more narrow lanes to be cleared. This project is based on the premise that a moving map (MM) capability will facilitate more precise lane navigation, thereby reducing aggregate lane width requirements for mine clearance., Original contains color plates: All DTIC reproductions will be in black and white.

In 2001, the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) was approached to investigate, develop, and demonstrate software on commercial off the shelf (COTS) hardware to electronically display precise lane navigation information. The navigation information should provide both a primary and an alternative means to guide landing craft drivers through an assigned lane to the beach during an amphibious assault in the presence of mines. Specific needs have been outlined based on input from both the mine countermeasures and the amphibious community., Pub. in Proceedings of the Joint Services Data Exchange (JSDE) Conference, p2-7 May 2002. The original document contains color images.

Cockpit digital map displays have long been considered a good situational awareness (SA) tool for the pilot. However, due to limited computational capabilities in tactical aircraft, most cockpit map displays have been limited to the display of digitized paper charts and imagery. One significant problem encountered by tactical aircraft pilots is map display clutter. Important mission planning and real-time overlays are often rendered over the map display during flight. The clutter resulting from the combination of these overlays with the underlying map display can lead to reduced situational awareness. Unfortunately, the feature content of digitized paper charts and imagery cannot be altered to help alleviate the clutter. Next-generation cockpit maps, like Vector map displays, will allow the crew to customize the map, embed information within it, and declutter it. Of course, there may be a tradeoff between the potential of added flexibility in the cockpit versus a potentially higher pilot workload. A web-based Vector Map survey was developed to gather Navy and Marine Corps aircrew preference data to evaluate functional aspects of vector maps in the cockpit and in mission planning. The aircrews who responded to the Vector Map survey represented a full cross-section of Navy and Marine Corps Tactical and Rotary Wing platforms, and they had or were expected to have a requirement for cockpit Moving Map functionality. Results showed that the ability to declutter a map display was by far the highest ranked vector map function for all platforms for both mission planning and cockpit implementation. These results suggest that all the vector map functions demonstrated would be very beneficial, particularly in mission planning where more time can be devoted to map study. However, the study also suggests that there may be benefits to providing a reduced, predefined profile to the aircrew to declutter a map quickly. (2 tables, 1 figure, 4 refs.)

Today's military pilots are bombarded with information from moving-maps and other advanced cockpit displays. Current moving-map displays in the AV-8B Harrier and F/A-18 Hornet naval aircraft are based on scanned aeronautical charts, which are familiar to pilots but present an unalterable - and sometimes illegible - display. When mission-planning symbols (i.e., targets, threats, routes, etc.) are overlaid on these scanned-map displays, the result can be extremely cluttered. In contrast, the advent of 'vector' geospatial databases offers the potential for customized moving-maps, in which user-specified geospatial features can be layered (with or without a base-map, such as satellite imagery) to suit specific mission requirements. The primary disadvantage of vector-based cockpit moving maps is the potential for increased pilot workload, unless these new map displays are carefully designed for the target user.

This paper describes the design and development of an Internet-hosted Graphical User Interface (GUI) to plan digital aeronautical chart coverages for cockpit moving-map displays by U.S. military aircraft mission planners, requirements officers, and aircrew. The GUI is a component of the Moving-Map Composer (MMC) software that has been developed by the Naval Research Laboratory at the Stennis Space Center (NRLSSC). MMC performs a wide variety of naval mission planning systems and in-flight moving-map displays., Pub. in Proceedings of Southern Conference on Computing, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS 26-28 Oct 2000.

Since 1995, the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) at the Stennis Space Center (NRLSSC) has been developing and enhancing a software application that allows naval AV-8B and F/A-18 aircraft mission planners and aircrew to design and build digital aeronautical chart coverages for cockpit moving-map displays. The application, known as the Moving-Map Composer (MMC), currently is implemented in the X-Windows graphical user interface (GUI) language and the C programming language. Currently, MMC is only supported on Compaq Alpha computers running the OpenVMS operating system. This limitation requires end users to acquire Alpha stations, which are more expensive than standard Intel-based PC platforms. This paper will discuss reengineering methods being developed by NRLSSC to transform the existing MMC application to a Java and C-based program that will execute on many different hardware platforms and operating systems, including Linux, Windows NT and OpenVMS., Pub. in Proceedings of Southern Conference on Computing, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS 26-28 Oct 2000.