From data to actionable knowledge and decision

The Advanced Agent Technology Laboratory in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, the Human Computer Interaction Group at the University of Pittsburgh, the Munitions Directorate of Air Force Research Laboratory (MN/AFRL), Rome Labs and Northrup Grumman are partnering in early-stage research to address issues in high-level information fusion, including intent inferencing and retasking of sensors and munitions. To help translate information superiority to decision superiority (i.e. to rapidly arrive at better decisions than adversaries can respond to), many scientific, technical and technological challenges must be addressed. The most critical of those are information fusion and management at different levels, communication, planning and execution monitoring. The RETSINA multiagent infrastructure allows information producers and users to discover one another and establish direct links. The robust, decentralized Infosphere which results, can be stood up rapidly and ensures that information of the specified types will be delivered to the right users under the right conditions. We will present the overall approach for this research program, the role and contribution of each of the partners, the envisioned testbed, examples and research results to-date. In addition, we will discuss plans for the out-years.