Experimental Design and Analysis of M1A1 Commander/Gunner Performance during CONOPS (Continuous Operations) Using the U-COFT (Unit Conduct of Fire Trainer)
Abstract
This paper presents an experimental design which demonstrates the potential of high fidelity simulators as performance data collection tools. The experiment employs the Unit Conduct of Fire Trainer (U-COFT), an M1A1 Tank simulator, to measure the effects of sleep loss on the performance of the commander/gunner team. The Complex Cognitive Assessment Battery (CCAB) will also be used to measure sleep loss degradation of cognitive skills. The crews will be subjected to a structured environment for 72 hours with the control crews receiving eight hours of sleep each day, and the experimental crews receiving four hours of sleep each day. Furthermore, half of the experimental groups will sleep during a peak of the circadian cycle and half will sleep during a trough. The results of these experiments will provide commander/gunner team performance distributions for target acquisition, identification, classification, time to fire, accuracy, and system management capabilities during continuous operations (CONOPS). The results of these experiments could be applied to land combat models, like JANUS, as a first step toward incorporating human factors into the models. The capabilities of high fidelity simulators demonstrated by this experiment should cause future simulators to be designed not only for training, but also for data collection and processing. Keywords: Simulators; Training devices; Data collection methods; Human factors; CONOPS; U-COFT; Combat models; Experimental design; Tank crew performance; Combat simulations; CCAB; Military theses.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA218872
Entities
People
- Randy E. Geiger
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School