Tactical Pilot Assistant and Denied Environments: Incorporating Socio-Technical Factors in Simulations

摘要

In proposed designs, tactical pilot assistants incorporate artificial intelligence (AI), advanced human-systems interaction, and networked access to data and sensors to provide decision aiding of unprecedented sophistication. In conventional air combat scenarios, a tactical pilot assistant could, for instance, monitor aircraft systems, interpret and carry out pilot commands, and advise the pilot about systems status, mission progress, and threats. Such agents are particularly valuable during operations in contested environments, where pilots may be subject to denied communications, spoofed navigation systems, and other forms of electronic warfare (EW) disruptions. In Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) contexts, the tactical pilot assistant could alert the pilot when denial attacks such as datalink jamming or GPS spoofing are detected and recommend countermeasures. A2/AD effects could also degrade the integrity of the tactical pilot assistant itself, motivating systemic simulations early in design. The functions of a tactical pilot assistant and the pilot go well beyond the mechanics of maneuvering the aircraft. Tactical pilot assistants and their human pilots are part of a socio-technical system, where people and agents are inherently part of a network of operations that may involve ambiguous communications and dynamic roles and responsibilities. Combat sorties, for example, require considerable interaction within and across aircraft and remotely with people and agents on the ground. Developing, testing and integrating a tactical pilot assistant requires simulations that capture the complexities and vulnerabilities of an information-rich, networked, digital, automated world. Simulations that reflect socio-technical processes are needed to model the effects of human-automation interaction under both nominal and off-nominal conditions. Socio-technical context is not just a backdrop for simulation, but must be an explicit factor in a tactical pilot assistant's threat assessments and course of action recommendations. Detecting and overcoming problems with socio-technical lapses, whether benign or the result of hostile action, is one example. Communications and data disruptions, as in combat forces operating under conditions of denied access to information, can also have devastating emergent effects on the way people and intelligent systems work together. Simulating how people and automated systems interact in an uncertain, dynamic environment provides analysts and planners with a tool to assess risk and design and evaluate countermeasures, in particular, a tactical pilot assistant that enables a pilot to fight through such events. Simulations are thus needed that can properly capture work practices of the socio-technical system. To address this need, we adopt a socio-technical approach to simulating activity, namely situated, interactive behavior, that includes a spatial/geographical model, cultural features and objects, and information systems. In this paper, we present our simulation methodology that captures the activities of individuals and the socio-technical context. We describe current research in support of a tactical pilot assistant that employs this simulation approach for predictive analysis and constructive agent control in simulations of uncertain, complex threats. This work, in concert with related research contributing complementary capabilities, will accelerate the development of a robust tactical pilot assistant.