INTELLIGENT MAN-MACHINE INTEGRATION FOR ADVANCED ARMY ROTORCRAFT

THE INCREASING SPEED AND COMPLEXITY OF MODERN (AND FUTURE) AIR-VEHICLE SYSTEMS ARE PUSHING THE HUMAN OPERATOR TO HIS LIMITS, ESPECIALLY IN COGNITIVE-RELATED TASKS. IT IS THEREFORE OF PARTICULAR IMPORTANCE TO DEVELOP TECHNIQUES THAT ALLOW THE COMPUTER TO HELP THE HUMAN TO EXTEND THESE LIMITS. AN IMPORTANT CLASS OF SUCH ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES IS AN ACTIVE, MIXED-INITIATIVE MAN-MACHINE INTERFACE (MMI), WHICH INTELLIGENTLY AND ACTIVELY SUPPORTS THE HUMAN TO FIND, PROCESS, AND ACT ON THE RICH INFORMATION AVAILABLE. CHI SYSTEMS PROPOSES AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO BUILDING AN ACTIVE MMI FOR ADVANCED ARMY ROTOCRAFT, BASED ON A NEW COGNITIVE MODELING METHODOLOGY CALLED COGNET (COGNITION AS A NETWORK OF TASKS) AND A CORRESPONDING SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION TECHNIQUE CALLED BATON (BLACKBOARD ARCHITECTURE FOR TASK-ORIENTED NETWORKS). TOGETHER, COGNET AND BATON ALLOW US TO BUILD A POWERFUL COMPUTATIONAL MODEL OF THE OPERATOR AND EMBED THIS MODEL IN THE MMI SOFTWARE, THEREBY PROVIDING AN ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT IN AN ACTIVE MMI. THE PROPOSED PHASE I EFFORT EVALUATES THE APPLICABILITY OF THE COGNET/BATON SYSTEM TO MMI FOR ADVANCED ARMY ROTOCRAFT, IDENTIFIES CANDIDATE FUNCTIONS FOR THIS MMI, PRODUCES A PHASE II SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN, AND BUILDS A RAPID INTERFACE PROTOTYPE.