Results of the DoD Liveware survey

The authors discuss issues which the United States (US) military have to face in order to achieve more with the people resources after the downsizing efforts are complete. One way is to improve the human-machine relationship. To achieve this goal, the DoD has mandated a series of Human Systems Integration (HSI) analyses throughout the defense acquisition process. Defense acquisition managers, their contractors, and the HSI research and development community need a database of information about HSI tools, databases, and test facilities. They need this information to easily identify technology available in each of the Liveware domains of manpower, personnel, training (MPT), safety, health hazard prevention, and human factors engineering (HFE) to fully integrate human consideration into the acquisition process. Under the sponsorship of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Force Management and Personnel) HSI office and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Research Study Group.21 (RSG.21), ARL-HRED-STRICOM and CSERIAC have surveyed the HSI community to obtain a comprehensive database of HSI technologies. Highlights of the survey and resulting database are presented. The methods used to collect information about the HSI technologies, findings, and implications of the Liveware survey, are discussed