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 to perform successfully in the field. Current information interfaces lack a targeted operational focus and provide a broad superset of data, resulting in Ground Soldiers becoming overloaded by extraneous or non-critical information. To address this, the U.S. Army is developing User-Defined Operational Picture (UDOP) technology that will manage incoming information to maximize Ground Soldier effectiveness. However, 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 design and demonstrate a suite of design and analysis tools that: (1) use automated analysis techniques to determine what information the Ground Soldier needs to perform effectively, (2) model and simulate the information available to the simulated Ground Soldier based on the simulated UDOP’s capabilities and known limits of human information processing, and (3) provide visual mockups of the information provided by the simulated UDOPs that enable analysts and SMEs to appreciate and validate the type of information and display being simulated.