Collaborative Human-Computer Decision Making in Network Centric Warfare

The shift from platform-centric to network-centric warfare (NCW) will introduce new layers of human decision making complexity never before experienced in command and control. The success of NCW will hinge on the ability of networks to provide information to support shared situation awareness between both humans as well as automated agents such as unmanned air, ground, and underwater vehicles. Of particular concern will be how to classify, filter, and synthesize enormous amounts of information generated by NCW sensors, all to generate a critical decision under time pressure and uncertainty. Automation can aid in that it can quickly sort, filter, and optimize a set of multi-objective cost functions, but a known limitation for intelligent automation is its inherent brittleness and lack of flexibility. This paper will discuss the development of visualization tools for multi-objective cost functions, as well as interactive sensitivity analysis tools. It is critical that visualization tools convey both quantitative and qualitative information to ensure constraints are not violated, and aid in determining how decisions affect both local and global mission goals, with the overall goal of providing a robust solution exploration space. With effective collaborative decision support, it is possible that when humans and computers collaborate, they can discover solutions superior to the ones determined independently of the other