RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
High Resolution
Environment Information for Urban Operations
An Automated
Short-Free-Text Scoring System:
Development and Assessment
CPU Architectures
& Network Protocol Offload in a Simulation Environment
Automatic
Performance Evaluation and Lessons Learned (APELL) for MOUT Training
Calculating Error
Tradeoffs in Weapon Simulation for Live Training
Knowledge Tracing
and Prediction of Future Trainee Performance
A Framework for
Developing Serious Games to meet Learner Needs
Human Behavior
Model Interoperability For Training In Virtual Worlds
Videogame play
and the effectiveness of virtual environments for training
Distributed
Scheduling for Wireless Mesh Networks in Realistic RF Environments
Successful Deployment of Mesh Routers for Trans-Continental Urban Resolve Experiments
High Resolution Environment Information for
Urban Operations
2006 Paper No. 2482 Simon Ahlberg, Dr. Ulf Söderman Swedish Defence Research Agency, FOI Many modern operations, civilian as well as
military, including relief work, peacekeeping and peace enforcement, take
place in urban areas, which are known to be complex and dynamic environments.
Therefore, access to updated and detailed geographic (terrain) information
and/or 3D-models of the operating environment is often a key factor for
mission success. This kind of information is, however, often sparse, old or
even unavailable. To address this problem, especially in international
operations, a combination of methods and procedures for data acquisition and
data preparation will most likely be used. These include downloading
available data, purchasing commercial data (maps, satellite images) or
acquiring new data using (surveillance) sensors followed by extracting
geographic and geospatial intelligence data.
This paper addresses the
problems with supplying updated and detailed geographic (terrain) information
and/or 3D-models for urban operations. We will present ongoing work at the
Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) dealing with these problems. One focus
is the development of new methods for processing high resolution sensor data
used for rapid and automatic environment modelling for 3D visualisation,
recognised environment picture, decision support, mission planning, mission
rehearsal, etc. The methods include ground and feature characterisation,
extraction and modelling. The long term objective is an automatic production
chain from environment data collection to geospecific environment models. A
joint project with the This paper
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An Automated Short-Free-Text Scoring
System: Development and Assessment
2006 Paper No. 2675 Ohad Bukai, Robert Pokorny, and Jacqueline Haynes Intelligent Automation,
Inc. Computerized evaluation of students’ free-text
answers is already used in complex, high stakes testing, such as some of
those conducted for advanced placement examinations. These automated scoring systems work best
when student answers contain 200 or more words, and when the evaluation
system has many examples, exemplifying both good and poor answers. We developed
and assessed an algorithm which evaluates student short answers when the
answer has as few as 10 words, with the answer key using only one correct
answer. We sought such an algorithm so
that individual instructors could ask students to produce short open-ended
text responses to questions. Our
algorithm automates the scoring of free-text answers, enabling instructors to
embed such questions in online courses, and providing nearly immediate
scoring and feedback on student responses.
This algorithm is based on the semantic relatedness of the words in
the student answer to the single correct answer provided by the
instructor. The semantic relatedness
algorithm requires a dedicated domain specific index or collection of
topic-focused documents (a corpus), which is created by an automated crawl
mechanism that collects documents based upon descriptive domain
keywords. We assessed the accuracy
of this algorithm by collecting student answers to two text questions about
botany. This material was not complex, but required students to understand
what they read about Dutch Elm disease. Sixty-three students read the
material, and submitted answers to two questions. Across two questions, students’ answers
averaged 9.5 words; the model answers from the instructor averaged 20 words.
Across the two questions, the algorithm’s scores correlated .76 with the
scores from a panel of four human raters. For the same answers, individual
human raters’ ratings correlated .88 with the other three raters. While the algorithm was not as accurate as
individual human raters, we believe it shows enough promise to investigate in
applied field tests with real instructors and students. This paper
is available on the 2006 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order
it from I/ITSEC'S Website. |
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CPU Architectures & Network Protocol
Offload in a Simulation Environment
2006 Paper No. 2805 Jeremy Buboltz, Jacob Engel, Taskin Kocak Northrop Grumman The simulation industry
is increasingly using server CPUs for processing data. Simulation data creates a large number of
small packets that must be processed at the network level before the higher
level simulation processing is performed. As network traffic increases it
becomes a burden on the server CPUs, which need to process more packets and
still have room for application software. Dual-Core processor systems are
being introduced as a solution to the increase in processor utilization. In
this work, we present a performance analysis for servers based on the
dual-core AMD Opteron and the dual-core Intel Xeon processors while
processing in a typical simulation environment. Test log files were generated
for a representative packet clusters. These files were then used to compare
Intel dual-core and AMD dual-core servers verse a baseline dual-processor
server using both unidirectional and bidirectional communications. This paper
is available on the 2006 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order
it from I/ITSEC'S Website. |
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Automatic Performance Evaluation and
Lessons Learned (APELL) for MOUT Training
2006 Paper No. 2494 Hui Cheng, Rakesh Kumar, Thomas Germano and Chris Meng Sarnoff Corporation In order to train war fighters for urban
warfare, live exercises are held at various MOUT facilities. Commanders and
instructors need to have situation awareness of the entire mock battlefield,
and also the individual actions of the various war fighters. The commanders
and instructors must be able to provide instant feedback and play through
different actions and ‘what-if’ scenarios with the war fighters. The
warfighters in turn should be able to review their actions and rehearse
various maneuvers. The system must be able to automatically score the
performance of the warfighters and provide them an assessment of their
performance. In this paper, we describe the technologies
behind a prototype training system, which tracks and automatically assesses
performance of war fighters around an urban site using a combination of
ultra-wideband RFID, INS pose, trigger sensor and smart video based
tracking. The system is able to: 1.
Tag each individual with a unique ID using an RFID system. 2. Track and
locate an individual’s position, head pose and weapon pose within the domain
of interest at all times during an exercise. 3. Associate IDs with visual
appearance derived from live videos.
4. Visualize movement and actions of individuals within the context of
a 3D model. 5. Store and review activities with (x, y, head pose, weapon
pose, gun-trigger, ID) information associated with each individual. 6.
Automatically create events and performance metrics for each warfighter.
These events are stored in a database. User can click on an event and see the
associated video. An
ontology is used to represent the
expert knowledge for MOUT training. Using this ontology, the tracks are analyzed, performance metrics and events are automatically
created. The metrics of a novice can be compared… This paper
is available on the 2006 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order
it from I/ITSEC'S Website. |
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Calculating Error Tradeoffs in Weapon
Simulation for Live Training
2006 Paper No. 2515 AT&T Labs Research Applied Research
Associates, Inc. Next generation instrumentation systems for
live military training will simulate weapon engagements (shots) using
geo-pairing: matching shooter with target by geometric computations that
determine whether the trajectory or blast of the round intersects the target.
Such calculations depend critically on accurate sensor readings, including
positions of shooter and target(s), the pointing angle of the weapon at the
time of the simulated shot, and positions of terrain obstacles. However,
perfect sensors are unattainable, so a key question for system engineers is
just how accurate do the sensors need to be? After all, physical weapons
themselves have inherent inaccuracies (weapon “dispersion” or “spread”); for
training purposes, it is not necessary to simulate better accuracy than
exists in the weapons themselves. Moreover, a less accurate point angle
sensor can to some degree be compensated for by a more accurate position
sensor, and vice versa. Thus, ultimately we would like to understand this
trade off quantitatively in order to support cost effective system
engineering decisions. This paper describes an
iterative statistical approximation method, implemented as a set of
computational tools, used by the U.S. Army’s One Tactical Engagement
Simulation System (OneTESS) Project for supporting these design trade-offs.
In particular, we show how to compute the probability of correct sensor-based
shot adjudication forgiven sensor combinations, as well as trade off diagrams
showing which combinations of sensors can be used together to achieve realism
matching the physical accuracy of actual weapons systems. … This paper
is available on the 2006 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order
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Knowledge Tracing and Prediction of Future
Trainee Performance
2006 Paper No. 2992 Kevin A. Gluck, Glenn Gunzelmann Air Force Research
Laboratory Intelligent tutoring
systems seek to optimize instruction and training by adapting and
individualizing the learning experience on the basis of a student model
(Shute, 1995). This model represents the system’s estimate of the student’s
current knowledge or skill level, established from a performance history.
Knowledge tracing (Aleven & Koedinger, 2002; Anderson, Conrad, &
Corbett, 1989) is a dynamic, Bayesian approach to updating the estimates of
probability of skill mastery in the student model. A fundamental shortcoming
of this approach is that it does not include a representation of memory decay
during periods of non-practice. As a result, traditional student modeling
approaches are unable to make predictions regarding knowledge and skill
changes under various future training schedules or to prescribe how much
training will be required to achieve specific levels of readiness at a
specific future time. In this paper, we propose a new knowledge tracing
equation, computationally inspired by the learning and forgetting equations
in the ACT-R cognitive architecture (Anderson et al., 2004), which uses
performance history to baseline student model parameters and then
extrapolates knowledge state transformation to predict future performance. We
explore practical issues concerning predictive models of future trainee
performance and the prescription of frequency and timing of optimal learning
with training systems. For instance, we investigate how much data from the
training history are necessary to achieve reasonable predictive validity, and
we describe the impact of data granularity through a quantitative assessment
of how adequately the model can fit and predict human performance curves
across aggregate-level, team-level, and individual-level resolutions. … This paper
is available on the 2006 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order
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A Framewor
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Human Behavior Model Interoperability For
Training In Virtual Worlds
2006 Paper No. 2838 David McDonald, Richard Lazarus, William Ferguson, Alice Leung, Talib Hussain BBN Technologies It
is commonly recognized that a key challenge of urban military operations is
the complex terrain. However, the large number and diversity of people
present another less recognized but critical challenge, especially for
non-combat operations. Warfighters must understand the socio-cultural effects
of their actions, handle direct interaction with non-combatants (and
potential combatants), and understand the immediate and long-term consequences
of their interactions: every soldier must be a skilled ambassador. Given that
realistic training requires many participants, the high cost and limited
availability of highly-qualified participants restricts access to quality
training opportunities. Synthetic characters can provide the numbers, but
present-day simulated characters have limited capabilities for interacting
with each other and with humans in the rich, meaningful way that is required.
Thus, we must populate these virtual training worlds with characters whose
behaviors are generated by human behavior models (HBMs) rather than humans.
While significant achievements have been made in developing HBMs that are
able to control a single simulated character (or a single group of simulated
characters), a serious limiting factor has been the inability of
heterogeneous HBMs to interact with each other or share knowledge about their
environment. We present an architecture and multi-level message framework for
enabling HBMs to communicate with each other about their actions and their
intentions. Also, we describe our conception of the “Mindscape,” which will
facilitate the use of massive numbers of synthetic characters by representing
the options and state of social relationships and interactions as shared affordances
in the environment. ... Order
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Videogame play and the effectiveness of
virtual environments for training
2006 Paper No. 3001 Rebecca Tortell, Jacquelyn Ford
Morie The Sensory Environments
Evaluation (SEE) project set out to examine the effects of emotional valence
of a virtual training scenario on learning and memory. Emotional arousal is
well-established as having enhancing effects on memory (McGaugh, 2000). A
virtual scenario called DarkCon was created to resemble a night-time
reconnaissance mission. Priming of subjects was the first experimental
variable. Subjects were randomly assigned to receive their mission briefing
in a serious style, suggesting a serious military mission, or in a lighter
style, suggesting a fun role-playing game. The influence of videogame
experience was included in analysis of subjects’ recall of the environment
and of their physiology. In the present study, 34 Army Rangers from This paper
is available on the 2006 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order
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Distributed Scheduling for Wireless Mesh
Networks in Realistic RF Environments
2006 Paper No. 2635 San Diego Research
Center, Inc. Member, IEEE In this paper, we evaluate the performance of
two distributed scheduling algorithms for wireless mesh network through
simulations with realistic RF modeling.
Wireless mesh networking
has recently attracted lots of interests in both academia and industry, and
becomes a critical technology in pursuit of the 21st century joint force
operations. One major challenge in mesh networks is how to maximize the
network capacity, which is strictly limited by interference. Two distinct
distributed scheduling algorithms have been proposed for IEEE802.16/WiMax and
OT-TES (Operational Test-Tactical Engagement System being designed for the
U.S. Army by SDRC), respectively. Despite sharing the same goal of achieving
efficient collision-free Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) scheduling,
they are based on very different paradigms of distributed node coordination.
The 802.16 approach, namely Coordinated Distributed Scheduling (CDS), is
based on simplified quasi-interference model in which wireless networks are
approximated with wired-like logical connectivity graphs. In contrast, the
OT-TES approach based on Link State Protocol (LSP) does not rely on such RF
modeling approximation, and instead fully embraces realistic non-quasi
interference environments. As a result, in a realistic RF environment, 802.16’s
CDS algorithm may fail to achieve collision-free transmissions while SDRC’s
LSP approach is truly collision-free.
This paper
is available on the 2006 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order
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Successful Deployment of Mesh Routers for
Trans-Continental Urban Resolve Experiments
2006 Paper No. 2569 CACR, Caltech Robert Lucas, Gene Wagenbreth, and John Tran Information Sciences
Inst. /Univ of So Lockheed Martin Info This paper reports the
successful deployment of a robust scalable interest-managed router
architecture that has supported a series of trans-continental simulations,
such as Urban Resolve. Previous architectures had served well over the years,
but were conceptually limited both in scalability and in robustness, or
fault-tolerance. The scalable router architecture had its inception in high
performance parallel computing research and its initial application in a
truly scalable architecture for inter-node communications on parallel
supercomputers and Linux clusters. Its design provided both needed
scalability and desirable robustness on the single platform meshes of several
large parallel computers made up of hundreds of compute nodes. The scalable
router was designed to integrate smoothly with other Urban Resolve software
by reusing Run Time Infrastructures (RTI-s) components. In an effort to
minimize communication latency, maximize use of available network bandwidth,
and increase robustness of trans-continental (Virginia to Hawaii) operations,
Joint Forces Command’s J9 directed that its wide-area router’s offer the same
characteristics of scalable and robust operations. That led to the wide-area
deployment … This paper
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