Research Summaries

Back Improving Physiological Modeling in Combat Simulations

Fiscal Year 2020
Division Research & Sponsored Programs
Department NPS Naval Research Program
Investigator(s) Balogh, Imre L.
Blais, Curtis L.
Sponsor NPS Naval Research Program (Navy)
Summary The United States military is entering an era where unmanned and autonomous systems are expected to play an increasing role in delivering greater warfighting performance. While expectations are high, the analytical community does not possess the simulation tools and techniques to quantitatively represent and assess the performance of various mixes of manned and unmanned systems. Simulations used in acquisition studies must differentiate performance of humans and machines, operating separately and as teams. Earlier research has shown that the primary capability lacking in analytical simulations today is a realistic representation of the capabilities of humans in the battlespace. That is, before we can effectively evaluate the combined performance of human and unmanned systems, we first require improvement in the modeling of human systems. To this end, the United States Marine Corps (USMC) has a need for high-resolution models of physiological effects on task performance to explore the trade space across mobility, survivability, and lethality. The objective of this Naval Research Program thesis topic is to examine the state-of-the-art in modeling human performance in combat simulations, focusing on physiological considerations of endurance, energy, and maneuver speed/agility, leading to subsequent effects on perception, information processing and decision-making. The existing Combined Arms Analysis Tool for the 21st Century (COMBATXXI), jointly developed by the USMC and the U.S. Army to support studies of future warfighting systems and capabilities, will be used as an example simulation for examining current capabilities in modeling human physiology and its effects on combat and for evaluating physiological models of interest. This analysis will result in recommendations of improvements to COMBATXXI capabilities to improve representation of human performance and its effects on warfighting, while providing information that can be applied to other combat simulations.
Keywords Combat Simulation Human Performance Modeling Human Physiology Modeling
Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal