A Cognitive Approach to Developing Planning Tools to Support Air Campaign Planners
Abstract
Artificial Intelligence methods can rapidly generate detailed plans for complex situations. However, these plans may be rejected by planning experts, who judge dimensions such as robustness using operational rather than computational criteria. Our goal in this research was to capture the tactical and strategic concerns of air campaign planners, and incorporate these into planning technology to assist with filtering out the unacceptable options and highlighting preferred plans. Specifically, we focused on identifying characteristics of quality plans and how these characteristics are judged in operational settings. We used a variety of knowledge elicitation techniques in the Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) to identify the process of plan evaluation and the factors underlying judgment of plan robustness. Our research drew on observations and interviews in a variety of settings: The primary data sources were from Joint Force Air Component Commander (JFACC) exercises and from a simulation exercise with Pentagon planning staff. The CTA formed the foundation of a software tool, the Bed Down Critic, which highlights potential problem areas, vulnerable assumptions, and summarizes aspects of quality to the user.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA369409
Entities
People
- Jennifer K. Phillips
- Michael J. Mccloskey
- Robert R. Copeland
- Thomas E. Miller
Organizations
- Klein Associates