21ST CENTURY SYSTEMS, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: ABSTRACT: Airspace congestion with RPAs in close proximity to manned systems poses a seri

Description

ABSTRACT: Airspace congestion with RPAs in close proximity to manned systems poses a serious threat for mishap. At present, RPA pilot training in airspace management is minimal. RPA operator training should consider communications, asset management, deconfliction, and coordination among RPA and manned system pilots, and air battle management personnel. 21st Century Systems, Inc. (21CSI), which has been developing intelligent agent-based decision support tools for more than 14 years, will apply its mature technology and research experience to help fill this gap. Teamed with Dr. Eduardo Salas of University of Central Florida"s Institute for Simulation and Training, an expert on team and individual training, 21CSI proposes AMADEUS, an integrated scenario development, execution, and after-action review system for robust airspace management training. AMADEUS will leverage 21CSI"s intelligent agent infrastructure and advanced resource allocation, management and coordination algorithms, successfully employed for AWACS weapons director training, as wells as its evidential reasoning technology to link coaching agents to trainee"s mission objectives, for a dynamic performance metric evaluation system with feedback into the training exercise. 21CSI"s extensive intelligent agent experience, coupled with our unequaled, perfect commercialization rating from the DOD, makes us the respondent most likely to get this capability into the hands of the warrior. BENEFIT: This effort will result in state-of-the art training system for airspace coordination and deconfliction in the combat zone, largely targeted at RPA pilots operating in airspaces shared with or adjacent to manned aircraft. This openly architected agent-based trainer will be flexible to advances in visualization, verbal and text-based communications and other enhancements, as they become available. After successfully demonstrating technical feasibility in Phase I, Phase II efforts will be dedicated to the full-fledged implementation of the AMADEUS Virtual Trainer prototype which will take the concept"out of the laboratory"and into a limited demonstration and testing with SMEs and RPA operators. Through expert feedback, training methodology expertise, and a strong technical background, the AMADEUS trainer will deliver a robust multi-modal training capability, useful in single-user scenarios or in large team training exercises. Its component-based architecture will allow the tool to easily integrate with existing simulation and training systems, augmenting their value for mixed manned/RPA system operator training.