Metis: An Integrated Reference Architecture for Addressing Uncertainty in Decision-support Systems

Deliver “actionable” intelligence instead of just raw information – this is what the Metis research project pursues for supporting operational work in domains characterized by constantly evolving situations with a diversity of entities, complex interactions and high-level uncertainty in the information gathered. Operating effectively in such domains requires robust, on-the-fly and context-based information reasoning, which goes beyond human capabilities. In this paper a real-time reference architecture is presented employing and integrating several state-of-the-art computing technologies for automated and consolidated ‘situational understanding’. In particular, outlined are the innovative components (i) for fusing of and reasoning on uncertain information based on probabilistic logic and (ii) for a complementary interactive visualization disclosing the system’s line of reasoning inferred from the domain model and provided evidence. The architecture has been realized as a fully demonstrable proof of concept and its applied value is illustrated in a number of real and fictive cases from the domain of maritime safety and security.