April 26, 2014 · by Fortuna's Corner
FINANCIAL TIMES
April 25, 2014
Science: Interpreting the Theatre of War
By Clive Cookson
Two research projects seek to improve the decision-making of fighters in the heat of battle
US troops Afghanistan in 2010©AFP
‘Field operatives need technology that can help to identify and assess threats’: US troops in Afghanistan, 2010
Two very different research projects announced this month on opposite sides of the Atlantic are seeking to improve the decision-making of fighters in the heat of battle.
In Britain, the University Defence Research Collaboration (UDRC) has embarked on a five-year project to help soldiers assess their surroundings more quickly and accurately, by developing software to assimilate the information provided by the huge range of sensors present in the modern battlefield, from radar and sonar to mobile phones.
In the US, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) has a four-year plan, based on cognitive, behavioural and neural science, to help sailors and marines harness their “gut instincts” when they’re faced with the unexpected.
Although the two programmes are unrelated they could be complementary, says Mike Davies of Edinburgh University, director of UDRC. The £4m UK project aims to give military personnel the information most useful to them, without any confusing extraneous signals. Then the US research can kick in, using psychology to enhance their decisions.
“A seasoned war-fighter develops a gut instinct through experience,” says Brent Olde of ONR. “If we can characterise this intuitive decision-making process and model it, then the hope is to accelerate the acquisition of these skills through simulation – thus providing our sailors and marines with years of experience in a matter of days and greatly improving their ability to make split-second decisions.”
His colleague Peter Squire talks about harnessing a “sixth sense”, something like the “spider-sense” with which Spiderman detects danger – although of course this research has nothing to do with the supernatural or superheroes. “But first, we have to understand what gives rise to this so-called sixth sense,” he says. “And is there a way to improve it through training?”
Examples given by ONR include detecting roadside bombs from a moving vehicle and deciding whether an airborne object just spotted off the coast is a missile or an airliner. People in similar situations would benefit from the UK project too. “Operatives in the field,” Davies says, “need technology that can help to identify and assess threats, housed in equipment that’s portable and easy to manage.”
The idea is to let computers handle what is most effectively done by automation and leave humans to deal with what they do best. “Take underwater mine detection,” Davies adds. “In an uncluttered environment [computer] algorithms will outperform human operators; but when the environment is very cluttered with rocks, the human eye and brain are still best.”
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