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DFDMSA - Data Fusion, Data Management and Situational Awareness

Overview

As part of an associated research program developing the next-generation of Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) platform, we are building an environment that can support the generation of information tailored to a AEW&C operator’s tasks. To this end, we are developing a task-based interaction environment that delivers tailored multimedia information from the analysis and the recognition of the operator’s activity. This aims at supporting operators and maximizing their efficiency by automatically providing them with information relevant to their tasks.

Research Issues

In the Wedgetail system, it is crucial to provide operators with the information they need to support their decision process. Importantly, as the operators’ information needs change at the various stages of their task, the information display should also change to ensure the most relevant information is always available and prominently displayed, and less relevant information is not allowed to distract the operator. It is thus important to build an environment that can support the generation of tailored information presentation to the operator’s tasks.

Task-Driven Information Provision 

We are currently building an environment to support the air combat operators in their tasks. This environment called Task-Driven Interaction Module (TDIM) constitutes the interface between the operator and the system. Its role is to support the operators in their tasks and to enhance the effectiveness of the human-machine interaction. The Task-Driven Interaction Module developed jointly with other CSIRO research groups, is composed of three components: 

  1. The Operator Graphical User Interface, which allows the operator to interact with the system; 
  2. The Task-Recognition Parser, which analyses the operator’s activity to be able to both determine the current task in progress and predict the next one; and, 
  3. The Virtual Document Planner (VDP), which delivers multimedia information tailored to the operators’ tasks. 

The aim is to drive information provision based on a representation and recognition of the operator’s tasks. This is then used to determine the operator’s information needs.