In support of the Army's objective of developing embedded training for the Future Combat System (FCS), Army Research, Development & Engineering Command (RDECOM) sponsored the development of a technology demonstration and experiment with an integrated architecture linking intelligent evaluation mechanisms with their Command and Control Vehicle (C2V) testbed. Automated evaluation methods based on Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) techniques are applied to monitor simulation and testbed events, and deliver feedback during scenario execution via messages published to the simulation environment. The logic for these intelligent evaluations is captured in hierarchical agent behaviors, and indexed to training principles identified by subject matter experts. This paper summarizes the findings from this effort, including technical methods as well as the results of experiments with human test subjects to measure the effectiveness of the system for training. Specifically, the improvement in performance over time among test subjects receiving automated feedback was contrasted with subjects receiving other forms of instruction such as an instructor-led after action review. These results provide a basis for the discussion of the way forward with FCS embedded training. Ultimately, with the application of automated training methods such as embedded ITS and structured training, a major potential benefit is the ability to train in settings where human instructors are not present or available. The work building the demonstration system sheds light on several areas of potential future work in support of developing full scale Intelligent Structured Training systems to realize these benefits. In addition to further validation of the approach, significant developmental areas include integration and compatibility with simulation common components like OneSAF that are likely to be used by the FCS program, scenario authoring tools to streamline the process for subject matter experts, and rapid behavior definition methods for simulated opposing forces to heighten realism and enhance training benefits.
FCS Intelligent Structured Training - Experimental Results and Future Applications
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