Acquisition and Modeling of a Priori Knowledge for Decision Support Systems

Decision support systems shall assist human operators in performing their tasks in natural dynamic situations like medical emergencies, fire-fighting, police actions, or military operations, respectively. Such systems need information about the actual external system environment and the actual internal system state as well as a priori knowledge about possible external situations and possible internal system states. The paper reports about an approach for acquiring and modelling especially the a priori knowledge about possible external situations in a military environment. The approach comprises three modelling steps: a theatrical performance model that corresponds quite well with the knowledge representation of subject matter experts (SME) and therefore can be applied for knowledge acquisition, a formal description model that specifies mathematically the a priori knowledge of SME, and an object-oriented UML model that represents the basis of modem software system development. The applicability of the modelling approach is demonstrated by means of a Navy scenario that describes the operational air environment of a frigate in a surveillance mission.