911th AW supports SEI research and development

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Jonathan Hehnly
  • 911th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
Pittsburgh IAP ARS --  Over the past year, the 911th Airlift Wing has partnered with a nearby Department of Defense-funded research and development facility to assist with data gathering for its Advanced Mobile Systems Initiative.

The research initiative is focused on innovative advanced technologies to aid in the safety and effectiveness of dismounted military members in battle. Through the use of hand-held devices and mobile applications, the Software Engineering Institute intends to create effective context awareness and the ability to automatically send and receive relevant information when those in tactical environments need it most.

Dr. Jeff Boleng, a senior member of the technical staff on the AMS team, spearheaded an effort to use local military members as experimentation partners for the research project. With the help of Capt. Geoffrey Dobson, the Director of the 911th Communications Squadron, a working relationship was soon formed between the Carnegie Mellon University-based research center and the 911th AW.

"We are happy to build a partnership with the SEI," said Capt. Dobson. "We plan to have a continuing and growing partnership, which will be mutually beneficial. We can assist the SEI with live troop data-gathering events and the SEI can assist the 911th AW with cybersecurity and information assurance training and awareness."

Airmen from the 911th AW have participated in three data-gathering events thus far in support of the SEI's on-going AMS research.

For each event the group, mostly made up of 911th Communications and Security Forces Squadron personnel, was equipped with inertia measurement unit sensors and Android phones, which were attached to the members' uniforms. The IMU sensors and phones worked together to measure and record the motion and acceleration of the members' body movements.

The AMS team took the input gathered from the sensors and created an application that can monitor various sensors and infer the user's activities- i.e. If the user is running, walking, raising or firing his/her weapon, etc.

The SEI's goal is to have the context awareness applications be able to automatically recognize when a squad is under attack and be able to give indication back to the command post or to other team members. These automatic alerts will provide valuable status information on the member or team and will signal the need for support functions without the member having to manually request them.

"It's really interesting to see how technology can be used to support and augment field commanders, in pre-identifying units that need medical evacuation or rescue," said Capt. Scott Kniola, 911th AW Chief of Process Management.

During the most recent data-gathering event involving the 911th AW, the researchers tested their technology's ability to identify the presence of a threat based on a team's collective movement. In order to test this, Airman were split into teams of four and placed into force-on-force scenarios at a nearby paintball field.

The event enabled researchers to observe the context awareness of a team conducting normal tactics without a threat and then observe when those tactics were altered or changed due to the introduction of a threat, such as an ambush. The actions of the members, as individuals and as a team, were recorded by sensors and applications, and matched with video footage to ensure the sensors' accuracy.

911th AW members also assisted the SEI in gathering data for applications that combine activity recognition with pre-existing knowledge of individually assigned tasks.
 
"If we know an individual is involved in bomb disposal and the phone senses pressure, or the microphone picks up on noise from an explosion, the app can immediately send the command post notification for medical evacuation," said Dr. Boleng.

In addition, the SEI also created an application that has the capability to recognize when the user is in need of critical information and automatically pulls up relevant material, such as an unexploded ordnance identification checklist from the Airman's Manual. Based off preloaded information, the application is able to predict what a person is involved in and what they need and automatically provides it without the person manually requesting it.

The 911th AW's data gathering participation also supports research for the U.S. Special Operations Command's Tactical Assault Light Operators Suit effort that the SEI hopes to be involved with through 2018.

"It's been a great relationship and we would like to continue to work with the 911th," said Dr. Boleng. "Allowing us to test our prototypes on trained Airman rather than university students provides us with more valuable feedback. Where we go from here depends on wing leadership and how many people want to be involved."