Infantry Situation Awareness Training

High performance tactical decision-making requires commanders to apply detailed and situation-specific knowledge, as well as high-level thinking habits and skills applicable across diverse tactical situations. These skills include modeling a thinkingenemy, using all available assets, and considering how the commander's fight fits into the bigger picture from friendly and enemy perspectives. Such reasoning skills cannot be taught simply as methods and procedures to be followed. Achieving expertlevels of proficiency requires extensive practice, coaching, and feedback. Such mentoring-currently quite rare-is exemplified by tutoring sessions centered on Tactical Decision Games (TDGs), which we studied during Phase I.SHAI proposes to develop the Command Mentoring Intelligent Tutoring System (ComMentor) to provide automated instruction that emulates the Socratic interaction observed in expert TDG tutoring. As demonstrated in Phase I, SHAI will employ a combination ofrule-based and case-based techniques. A case library composed of good and bad solutions to each tactical scenario can be matched against a learner's solutions to assess reasoning skills. We have assembled an outstanding team to pursue this research, andwe offer significant relevant experience developing scenario-based intelligent tutoring systems, principle-based instruction, rationale capture and reasoning systems, and intelligent agents embedded within tutoring and simulation systems.