Modelling decision-making in tactical airborne environments using cognitive work analysis-based techniques

This paper reports preliminary investigations into understanding human operator decision-making activities in tactical airborne environments such as the Australian Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft. The overall goal of this research program is to explore the use of cognitive work analysis, in particular the control task analysis technique to drive the development of computational models employing artificial intelligence technology. The scope of this paper is limited to the study of an operator´s activity in decision-making terms from the results of control task analysis, and to develop a computational model using fuzzy logic from the understanding obtained from the control task analysis. This work does not explicitly illustrate the link between the fuzzy logic model and the decision ladder generated from the control task analysis, however this is one of the main objectives for further research. The asset management task from the AEW&C domain has been selected as an area for study. Asset management involves management of friendly assets such as fighter aircraft and air-to-air refuelling tankers in a time compressed situation, in which other tasks dominate cognitive processing. The control task analysis technique from cognitive work analysis is used to understand decision making activities in the “establish optimal asset disposition” control task