In Situ Collection of Human Social Cultural Behavioral Data

Human Social and Cultural Behavior (HSCB) models are increasingly used to provide critical support to US military decision making. HSCB models are highly reliant on data; they need data from many sources, types, and areas of human behavior. The concomitant data streams have variable data quality and are constantly changing. Despite these challenges, HSCB models may need near real-time access to this data to make rapid decisions. To promote rapid acquisition and effective use of relevant HSCB knowledge, we propose ACE-HSCB which automates HSCB data collection by a fleet of autonomous, unmanned, tactical ISR platforms (UAVs, UGVs, etc.). Our approach combines a socio-cultural context model of the theater of operations, a set of algorithms for focusing ISR systems on critical information needs, a four-dimensional model-based data processing architecture for sociocultural data storage and management, and an optimization model of UAV asset management. Together, these components allow ACE-HSCB to offer a solution to HSCB models"data needs that: (1) collects, stores, and disseminates data in a way that is optimal for HSCB queries/simulations, (2) works autonomously for long periods of time, and (3) allows all operations to be performed remotely.