Modeling User-Defined Operating Pictures (UDOPs) within Simulation Environments (MUSE)

The Network-Centric Warfare paradigm will provide Ground Soldiers in the U.S. Army with large amounts of information needed to maintain Situational Awareness and perform successfully in the field. Current information interfaces lack a targeted operational focus and provide a broad superset of data, which results in Ground Soldiers becoming overloaded by extraneous or non-critical information. To address this issue, the U.S. Army is developing User-Defined Operational Picture (UDOP) technology that manages incoming information to maximize Ground Soldier effectiveness. However, the Infantry Warrior Simulation (IWARS) and similar simulation-based analysis tools do not currently provide a means of modeling UDOPs and their effect on Ground Soldier performance. New modeling and simulation technologies are needed to address this gap. We propose to develop a system for Modeling UDOPs within Simulated Environments (MUSE) that (1) uses automated analysis techniques to determine what information the Ground Soldier needs to perform effectively, (2) provides tools for constructive simulation analysis that support the modeling and simulation of the information available to the simulated Ground Soldier based on the simulated UDOP’s capabilities and known limits of human information processing, and (3) that can be readily transitioned to operational UDOP systems.