Large Scale Knowledge Based Systems For Airborne Decision Support

Abstract

At ES 96 during the Key Note address, the point was forcefully made that software houses have contributed little to the advancement of KBS. In the defence area, especially that of aerospace systems, extensive use has been made of the expertise of software and system houses in developing validation methodologies (VORTEX), real time (MUSE) and multi-agent (D-MUSE) software and together with Universities, a knowledge acquisition toolkit (PC PACK). In the UK at DERA Farnborough within the Airborne Decision Support Group, Air Sector, these software and tools have been developed and applied to problems in building Decision Support Systems for Maritime Air applications. The demanding aircrew tasks are characterised by the need for assimilation and interpretation of multi sensor data to devise tactical responses in real time based on prevailing tactical doctrine and aircrew experience. The applications include Decision Support for Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW), Anti Surface Warfare (ASuW), Airborne Early Warning (AEW) together with ASW/ASuW and the proposed AEW technology demonstrators. Currently the transition is being made from the laboratory concept demonstrators to large scale technology demonstrator programmes as a risk reduction exercise prior to specification for airborne use. The proposed AEW TDP includes extensive modularity to support extensibility and component reuse.