An Externalizable Model of Tactical Mission Control for Knowledge Transfer

Abstract

Organizations that deal with humanitarian assistance, disaster response and military activities are often exposed to dynamic environments where chaos rules. Under these circumstances, standard operating procedures may not be always be applicable, forcing the controllers to resort to opportunistic, or even scrambled, control. The lack of tactical or strategic control forces the teams to rely on experience from scenario-based training and prior missions. Acquiring, and retaining, such experience is thus essential to prepare for future events. Based on ideas from the knowledge management community, this article proposes an externalizable control model, supporting methods for retaining mission experience through internalization via hypermedia. Such a knowledge base of experience can be used to simplify knowledge sharing, an important matter since first-hand experience from rare and extreme events is, naturally, rare. The knowledge base synthesizes actual decision making processes, complete with context, history, cues, and interactions and is captured through a combination of heterogeneous multimedia recordings, sensor readings, and documents relating to the mission. The approach can complement regular training and apprenticeships, to help establish and maintain a pool of knowledge and increase tactical commanders' recognition-primed decision-making capability.