Designing Future Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination Support Systems Using Simulation

Abstract

New automated intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) sensors and processing technologies provide access to ever increasing amounts of intelligence data. Effectively managing these technologies represents a profound system of systems challenge. In this study, we use system dynamics simulation to analyze and assess processing, exploitation, and dissemination (PED) system performance across a range of task areas for converting collected sensor data into information and intelligence. The resulting recommendations identify emerging research, technologies, and support tools than can improve future military PED system design and performance.The analytic approach used in this study involved three tasks. First, work domain analysis based on recent PED research and doctrinal reviews were combined with knowledge gleaned from interviews with subject matter experts to identify patterns of cognitive work and categorize emerging PED system challenges. Second, we searched for an appropriate methodology and chose to take a system dynamics (SD) analysis approach to explore these challenges. This SD approach was then extended based on Cognitive Systems Engineering [6] insights and applied in a limited and controlled operational scenario to verify its efficacy. The outputs from the SD simulation were then used to identify initial findings for further analysis coupled with a CSE work domain analysis to provide a basis for future support technology research and development recommendations.