Visualizing of planning and decision-aiding functions for crew assistance in military aircraft operations
Axel Schulte, Juergen Rogozik, Wolfgang Kloeckner · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1996
In military aircraft operations under hazardous conditions crews are often overcharged by tasks resulting from the complexity of the threat situation and respective low-level flight trajectory planning considerations. The Crew Assistant Military Aircraft which is a knowledge based system under development for improving the crew's situational awareness yields a promising approach. This paper presents two main aspects of the ongoing program; the Tactical Situation Interpreter (TSI) and the Low Altitude Planner (LAP). These modules represent the military specific components of the system. The TSI calculates a so called threat map based upon a list of tactical elements such as SAMs, fighters etc. and respective threat models. Besides this it yields some decision aiding functions such as distance to threat calculations in order to transform sensor data into an intuitive format with respect to the human information processing capabilities of the crew. The LAP calculates a low altitude trajectory through the operation area based upon digital terrain data and the TSI's threat map. The data are visualized in a 2D map display. Developments for a 3D enhanced vision integration are in progress and will be displayed in the Mission Management Technology Demonstrator.