Human performance modelling in tactical environments

Abstract

Current military command and control systems, and future systems in particular an Australian Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft, require the human operator to process a large volume of information at very rapid rates. These systems can impose extensive mental workload and task coordination requirements in a variety of ways, such as: the need for rapid and accurate manual performance; the demand for concurrent performance of multiple cognitive activities such as monitoring, planning and decision making; and the requirement to sample and integrate information from a number of perceptual input sources. From a cognitive perspective, the information handling and coordination requirements can become overwhelming, especially during times of high stress in a battle environment. The aim of this work is to understand and model the human operator behaviour in tactical environments such as AEW&C mission operations. The main objectives are to study the cognitive aspects of human behaviour and investigate artificial intelligence technologies for modelling human decision making.