DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR A COMMANDER

AT THE OPERATIONAL LEVEL

Jan Hodicky and Petr Frantis

Communication and Information Departement, University of Defence, Kounicova 44, Brno, Czech Republic

Keywords: Common Operational Picture, Virtual Reality, Command and Control, Decision Making Process.

Abstract: A current trend in command and control visualization systems is to show a real situation in relation with 3D

terrain data and real information about objects, tactical symbols, waters, woods and roads as well.

Implementing the Network Enabled Capability (NEC) concept is the main transformation process in the

Czech Army. The one of the main NEC outputs is a common operational picture. This article deals with a

design and an implementation of services for common operational picture data visualization supported by

Service Oriented Architecture. The article is built on a current status of a NEC implementation process. The

main output of this project is a prototype of visualization system that can be used by a commander and its

staff at the brigade level. The operator can easily see the real situation at the theatre supported by LINK 16

standard and a connection with Czech ground C2 system and virtual reality devices. This system is designed

to support decision making process of a commander.

1 INTRODUCTION

The industrial age began in 18

century. Energy and

engines were widely used in this age. The

information age was its successor. In this age, in

century, a value is gained by information

sharing and communication nets using. The

information age also affected the warfare. The main

factors of information age in the warfare are:

 Data and information;

 Communication environment;

 Security;

 Interoperability;

 Warfare digitalization.

The warfare digitalization can be characterized

by using an information technology in the processes

of data acquisition, data storage, data transformation,

data change and data and information evaluation in

the area of interest of the warfare. The main aim of

the warfare digitalization is to create a shared

common operational picture of the warfare. The

common operational picture is the main instrument

of the Networked Centric Warfare (NCW) concept

in the US army and the Network Enabled Capability

(NEC) concept in NATO nations. The common

operational picture shows the commander the

current situation in the battlefield in real time. He

can easily see the position of friendly and enemy

units. This must be supported by a communication

and information infrastructure (CII). The CII

includes sensors in high altitudes, unmanned aerial

vehicles (UAV), alert radars, ground sensors, etc.

The CII harvests data and transforms them into

information that is used in the common operational

picture. The common operational picture is usually

displayed on the visualizations devices, such as

monitor, LCD or projection system. The common

operational picture brings better situational

awareness.

Figure 1: Common operational picture – architecture

approach.

359

Hodicky J. and Frantis P. (2009).

DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR A COMMANDER AT THE OPERATIONAL LEVEL .

In Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development, pages 359-362

 SciTePress

2 VIRTUAL REALITY PROJECT

IN CZECH C2 SYSTEM

In 2007, The Defense department of the Czech

Republic accepted a new research project called:”

Virtual reality devices in ground forces tactical

command and control system (GFTCCS)”. The

project concentrates on increasing commander

situational awareness at a tactical and operational

level in three dimensional (3D) terrain visualization.

This project is based on integration of virtual reality

devices into command and control process.

The main project goal was a demonstration of a

new presentation layer of GFTCCS with virtual

reality devices. A global architecture of GFTCCS

was designed in 1999 and its presentation abilities

were obsolete. The commander could get

information about battlefield in 2 dimensions (2D)

only. The terrain spatial data were available but they

were not used to visualize the battlefield in 3D.

Communication between the commander and

GFTCCS was supported only by a mouse or

keyboard. A resolution of visualized battlefield was

given by output devices abilities - CRT or LCD

monitors. The old presentation layer offers common

features of Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

such as zoom in, zoom out or movement of actual

position over a map.

The main ability of GFTCCS is to show a

position of friendly forces as it can be seen on the

picture bellow.

Figure 2: Old presentation layer of GFTCCS.

The new presentation layer comes out from

experience with virtual reality devices in the

modeling and simulation world. The virtual reality

devices are heavily used in this field. Head mounted

displays (HMD), data gloves and tracking systems

are implemented in the training process of

individuals and units at the tactical level.

Knowledge of virtual reality devices opened a

new way to command and control in military

domain. The main idea is to increase the level and

quality of information about battlefield. This can be

rapidly increased by virtual reality devices. The

actual battlefield situation is projected into HMD in

very high resolution. The commander can operate

the virtual reality environment by head movements.

The left head rotation moves the current scene into

the left area of interest. The right head rotation

works on the contrary. The movement of the whole

body of commander creates effect of flying over the

virtual terrain. The commander can also use a data

glove to communicate with a new presentation layer.

Predefined gestures can manipulate the virtual

reality battlefield. In this way, the commander can

get the more detailed information about the area of

interest, or detailed information about selected unit.

The HMD and data glove is tracked by tracking

sensors to get the information about head and hand

position. The important fact is that the current

situation of the battlefield is projected in 3D. This

feature is supported by terrain database generator. It

offers 3D model of the area of interest created from

digital map resources. This data can be shared by

GTFCCT or duplicated in special data storage.

The picture bellow shows the current view on the

battlefield in 3D. This scene is projected into HMD

and the commander can use virtual hand to work in

virtual reality environment.

Figure 3: New presentation layer of GFTCCS.

The new presentation layer with virtual reality

devices is designed to be used at the brigade level.

KEOD 2009 - International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development

360

3 NEW PRESENTATION LAYER

ARCHITECTURE

Essential applications of GFTCCS that must be used

in a new presentation layer with virtual reality

devices (PLVR) are tactical situation (TS),

identification of friendly position (FP), identification

of enemy position (EP), electronic overlays (EO).

These applications create inputs from GFTCCS into

PLVR and are used to visualize quantitative and

qualitative information about friendly and enemy

forces and other battlefield objects. The picture

bellow shows the global architecture of design of a

new presentation layer GFTCCS.

Figure 4: PLVR architecture.

Input layer is designed as a web service. It can be

implemented as Service Oriented Architecture

(SOA) for interoperability achievement in the case

of interconnection with another C2 system. This

layer provides services such as current position of

friendly units. This layer offers connection into MS

SQL Server in an implementation scope. MS SQL

Server contains data about position of units and its

code for visualization of tactical symbol in APP –

6a. MS SQL Server contains complementary data

about units and its hierarchy. This information can

be used in an aggregation function. Input layer also

provides bitmap representation of APP – 6a tactical

symbol.

Terrain database generator offers 3D model of

the area of interest that is prepared from map

sources. This digital data are shared in GFTCCS or

can be located in data storage. The generation is

power consuming operation thus runs separately on

a local computer based on 64-bit platform. The

connectivity with graphics engine is solved by SOA

implementation. VR HW input layer supports

interconnection between the data glove and a

graphics engine and also interprets its positions into

VR environment coordinate system. It is

implemented as API with local function call. This

layer also implements gesture recognition and

translation that can be used by the commander to

operate the VR environment.

VR graphic engine visualizes the area of interest

in 3D with data from input devices, input layer and

preprocessed 3D model of trees, roads, buildings,

etc. The final scene is sent into VR HW output layer

that must correct it to visualize in HMD, LCD

systems, projection system or combination of

already mentioned devices.

Figure 5: Panoramatic visualization.

4 DATA REPRESENTATION

The current state of the art in data representation is

set by the US Force XXI Battle Command Brigade

and Below (FBCB2) system and its new presentation

layer component Command and Control in 3

dimensions that renders the battlefield information

into a 3 dimensions environment in real time (“CG2

C3D”, 2007). But this solution uses neither VR

devices nor tactical symbol representation in 3D.

Data representation is based on ontology that was

designed to interpret knowledge of NEC concept for

human being (Hodicky, 2009). Topic maps method

was chosen to describe information of NEC domain.

Tactical symbols are visualized as a block or a

spatial object that is semi transparent. They have

also the APP – 6a bitmaps on the surfaces and other

important information about current status of unit.

Additional information (combat efficiency, velocity,

fuel, etc.) are visualized as bar graphs.

5 POSSIBLE ENHANCEMENTS

A new presentation layer with VR devices creates a

supplementary tool to get common operation picture

of ground forces. The main tool that support

command and control process remains the old

presentation layer. A new one enhances the

GFTCCS ability to show the common operational

picture in 3D. Information from air forces domain

can be also sent into this presentation layer. The

current communication between aircrafts and ground

DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR A COMMANDER AT THE OPERATIONAL LEVEL

361

support system is based on tactical data link called

LINK 16. The new presentation layer is designed as

open architecture. We can easily modify input layer,

especially web services that will interpret LINK 16

code into graphics engine. It can support joint

operation between ground and air forces. In the joint

operation center the commander can see the position

of aircrafts, helicopters and ground forces as well.

This presentation layer is designed to support

staff at the brigade level. GFTCCS is currently able

get information about units’ positions. It is not

possible to get information about vehicles and

individual soldiers. This should be changed this

year. After this improvement, the presentation layer

can be easily transformed to visualize battlefield

with models of individual vehicles and even

soldiers. This can support battlefield operation for

intelligence units or tactical units at the company or

battalion level.

The VR HW output layer can be also modified to

be able to connect to projection system that will be

used by commander staff in the same time as the

commander.

6 CONCLUSIONS

The new presentation layer with virtual reality

devices is a support tool that shows the common

operational picture to the commander at the brigade

level. It visualizes the area of interest in real time

into HMD in relation with 3D terrain data and units’

positions. It supports the decision making process of

a commander. The picture bellow shows the

prototype of HW realization of the new presentation

layer. This system with only a few modifications has

been deployed in the field exercise Network

Challenge on May 2009 at the brigade level and was

favorably accepted. The level of battlefield

knowledge was increased by 3D terrain

implementation and a new style of data

representation.

REFERENCES

CG2 C3D Demonstration Application Employed in U.S.

Army AAEF Exercise Tests Real-Time 3D

Visualization of on the - Move C4ISR Data from

FBCB2 VMF Messages. (2008). Retrieved March 25,

2008 from http://www.cg2.com/Press.html

Hodicky, J., Frantis, P., 2009. Knowledge system in C2

and NEC concept. In DLSC 2009. University of

Defence.

Figure 6: Prototype of HW realization.

KEOD 2009 - International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development

362