AI FOR COMMAND AND CONTROL DECISION AIDS

THE PROPOSED WORK WILL BUILD UPON EXISTING TERRAIN MODELING AND ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS TO DEVELOP A PROTOTYPE COMMAND AND CONTROL DECISION AID FOR ARMY COMMANDERS AND STAFF. A PROTOTYPE WILL BE DEVELOPED DURING PHASE I. THE NEW SYSTEM "TERRAIN PLAN," WILL BE IMPLEMENTED IN COMMAND LISP ON UNIX-BASED ENGINEERING WORKSTATIONS. TERRAIN PLAN WILL USE AN AI-BASED DECISION SUPPORT CORE TO UNIFY (1) AN INTEGRATED GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM AND TERRAIN ANALYSIS SYSTEM, (2) AN OBJECT-ORIENTED DATABASE, AND (3) TACTICAL DECISION AIDS. SPECIFIC DECISION AIDS TO BE BUILD INTO THE PROTOTYPE WILL BE DECIDED IN PHASE I, BUT INCLUDE A NUMER OF TERRAIN ANALYSIS AND FIELD OPERATIONS PLANNING TOOLS. SEVERAL SUCH TOOLS CAN BE MODIFIED QUICKLY FROM SHELLS ALREADY DEVELOPED. THE USER WILL INTERACT WITH TERRAIN MODELS AND VIEW DATA (E.G., TOPOGRAPHY, ROAD NETWORKS, VEHICLE CHARACTERISTICS) THROUGH A MULTISCREEN GRAPHICAL INTERFACE. THE AI-BASED DECISION SUPPORT CORE SERVES AS A BUFFER BETWEEN THE USER AND THE SYSTEM TO HELP FORMALIZE LOGISTICAL PROBLEMS, RETRIEVE NECESSARY DATA, AND INTERPRET ANALYSES. SIMULATION CAPABILITIES WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR EVALUATING LOGISTICS DECISIONS TO COMPLEX TO BE RESOLVED ANALYTICALLY, AND FOR TRAINING PURPOSES.