APTIMA INC — Department of Defense STTR Phase I: N23A-T027

Description

The Navy has rapidly increased submarine capabilities in recent decades, with watchstanders now monitoring more systems and data sources than ever before. In addition to increasing the attentional and cognitive demands on watchstanders, this dynamic creates a balancing act between physical payload and the crew size necessary to handle the systems and meet mission requirements. Cognitive assistance is needed to support both routine tasks and the identification of critical events if crew sizes are to successfully support the increasing number of systems and data. To meet the Navy’s need for a Digital Sidekick for Submarine Watchstander Augmentation (DSSWA), Aptima will develop the Sidekick™ Mobile haptic alerting system. Building from ongoing work to integrate the system into submarine systems, Sidekick Mobile will utilize adaptive alerting methodologies to convey alert criticality, integrate existing data sources in an intelligent manner, provide pre-configured alert libraries to minimize setup time, and support the completion of routine tasks. Its highly modular architecture will facilitate integration with future information streams and additional hardware as needed. When fully implemented, this system will ensure that critical events are addressed promptly and free up cognitive bandwidth to accommodate new systems and data sources with current manning levels.