A HYBRID EXPERT-SYSTEM THAT COMBINES TECHNOLOGIES TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEM OF MILITARY TERRAIN ANALYSIS

Terrain analysis in support of planned military training or combat ope rations is a task which requires considerable training, skill and expe rience. Military planners must synthesize knowledge of both their own and their expected adversary's tactics, weapons systems and probable c ourses of action with descriptions of the physical battlefield area to identify key terrain, those features in the environment which have th e greatest potential to influence the outcome of military operations. Terrain analysis is the cornerstone activity during the ''intelligence preparation of the battlefield'', an analytic process designed to red uce uncertainty identify likely enemy courses of action, and help sele ct the most favorable friendly course of action Automated tools to ass ist in this process are now being constructed to support a variety of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) programs. The tools rely on the combination of several concepts and techniques that have b een developed within the artificial intelligence field. These include knowledge representation schemes, spatial reasoning techniques, autono mous agent planning methods, rule-based paradigms, and heuristic searc h strategies. While no single technique in isolation can fully solve t he broad problems of military operations planning, their combination p rovides a synergy that results in a useful end product. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd