Automated Discrete Event Modeling of Aircraft Carrier Deck Operations

Aircraft carrier deck operations require a high degree of coordination to maximize efficiency and safety. The current operational paradigms have evolved over many decades of experience. However, the anticipated introduction of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other automated systems are likely to require major changes to existing operational procedures to maximize utility. Modeling is an attractive approach for optimizing future operational procedures, but baseline models of the current operational procedures do not exist and cannot be easily formulated. What is needed is a system that can monitor current operations and translate the observed behaviors into a model. Creare will use novel machine vision techniques and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies to observe deck operations and identify discrete events. We will develop model-generation algorithms to use these observed discrete events to create executable sub-models associated with each primary task. These sub-models will then be combined into a global model of deck operations. In Phase I, we will demonstrate the basic framework of our approach in a laboratory setting, and in Phase II, we will extend the technique to a more complex environment representative of aircraft carrier operations. In Phase III, we will apply the technique to an actual carrier environment.