Tactical Alert Management

Emerging technology now in use in the military enables air vehicles, dismounted soldiers, persistent sensors, and higher headquarters to share multimedia information in the form of alerts that will increase the awareness of a dismounted soldier conducting urban operations. The challenge is to manage the complexity of such a tactical alerting system so that soldiers are not overwhelmed or distracted by new technology. There is a large number of ways to present soldiers with any specific information in the form of an alert, including the choice not to present the information. An effective tactical alert management system must accurately learn the preferences of the soldier as well as policy from higher-level command from a small number of examples in a small amount of time with a simple interface. This paper presents the development of an information management engine that accomplishes this difficult goal. We present the system concept, an ontology for tactical alerts, a supervised learning approach, and results of pilot study experiments that give preliminary validation for the use of such a system.