QinetiQ

Decision Support for Military Pilots 

“The traditional knowledge acquisition bottleneck has been significantly reduced by the provision of a structured methodology and tool set (CommonKADS and PCPACK)” 

Dr Blair Dickson, Centre for Human Sciences, QinetiQ

Customer

QinetiQ is the privatised division of the former Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA). It is a science and technology powerhouse driven by Europe's largest community of scientists, engineers and technicians. They are responsible for inventions and innovations ranging from the jet engine and high-speed flight to Liquid Crystal Displays and flat panel speakers. QinetiQ have a staff of over 9000 in locations across the UK and USA. In 2003 QinetiQ recorded a turnover of £775 million. 

Operational Issues

In today’s complex military environments it is imperative that all missions are carried out with the utmost effectiveness in order to minimize collateral damage and loss of own forces. In the context of air attack missions, advances in technology mean that aircrew can be overloaded with data and tasks such that they cannot perform to an optimal level throughout a mission. One method of reducing the task and cognitive load on aircrew is the provision of intelligent knowledge-based aiding systems enabling the pilot to concentrate on critical tasks. These systems require context sensitivity in order to provide the right information, in the right way, at the right time, and to perform vital tasks if the pilot is overloaded. 

To address this issue, the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) in conjunction with the Defence Evaluation Research Agency (DERA) established a program of applied research concerned with the development of cockpit automation and decision aiding for military fast-jet pilots. The project aimed to provide a demonstration of options and benefits for future envisioned air systems such as Future Offensive Air System (FOAS), Future Carrier-Borne Aircraft (FCBA), and Eurofighter Upgrade. 

Solution

Based on success in a number of previous projects, DERA selected Epistemics to perform knowledge acquisition and implementation of the knowledge-based decision support system. Epistemics captured and validated knowledge from a number of RAF and Royal Navy pilots making use of PCPACK and a range of special acquisition techniques. CommonKADS task templates were used to improve efficiency and ensure all relevant knowledge was captured. Areas covered included target attack, mission re-planning, and use of defensive aids suite. The results of the knowledge acquisition were (1) a number of scenarios in which the implemented system could be demonstrated and evaluated, and (2) knowledge documents giving implementation-independent models of the knowledge involved in the relevant tasks. 

Using the acquired knowledge, Epistemics implemented a Situation Assessment Support System. This system monitors the status of the aircraft situation and the outside environment and recommends actions to the pilot. In particular, the system provides advice on defensive tactics to the pilot when a surface-to-air missile threat is detected. Alternatively, the system can perform the necessary defensive tasks if the pilot is overloaded. 

Benefits

The use of PCPACK was essential in supporting the acquisition and modeling of knowledge. The special acquisition techniques and CommonKADS task templates provided a structured approach that ensured fast capture of knowledge from multiple experts. This minimised the amount of time spent with experts and maximised the quality of the resulting knowledge documents. The individual task decompositions and detailed knowledge captured provide the basis for future architectural and software-design processes. 

The structured approach ensured that the implemented Situation Assessment Support System was robust and made use of components that are extensible and re-usable in future projects. 

The Situation Assessment Support System was incorporated into a Cognitive Cockpit flight simulator which has been successfully demonstrated to senior military personnel from around the world. In tests, pilots have found the system to be a significant aide making the crew station easier to use and taking a significant step towards cockpit automation and decision aiding for military fast-jet pilots.