Using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps for Knowledge Management in a Conflict Environment

In modern military battlefield environments, the availability of data and information has increased exponentially. Through information and communications technology, individuals and teams can access real-time data about almost any aspect of their current conflict situation, but this instantaneous availability of information to individuals and teams in these conflict situations does not always result in better or faster decisions. Instead, the speed and volume of data made available through surveillance, monitoring, analysis, computer, and communications technology can quickly overwhelm decision makers. Worse, different decision makers that need to coordinate their actions as part of a team effort might use different filters to reduce their data to something more manageable, or what they perceive as more relevant, to their emerging situation. To better manage the information in real time, a mediator is necessary. Fuzzy cognitive maps are proposed as one possible technique for mediating the information made available to decision makers. Such maps were used as part of a research project that used novice teams to simulate an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) crew managing air assets in a conflict situation. The process of constructing the maps, their role in the simulation, and preliminary results of the test runs of the AWACS simulation are presented