Andris Jaunzemis, Georgia Institute of Technology; Dev Minotra, Georgia Institute of Technology; Karen Feigh, Georgia Institute of Technology; Marcus Holzinger, Georgia Institute of Technology; Moses Chan, Lockheed Martin Space
Keywords: Cognitive systems engineering, space situational awareness, decision support system
Abstract:
Existing approaches for sensor network tasking in space situational awareness (SSA) rely on techniques from the 1950s and limited application areas while also requiring significant human-in-the-loop involvement. Increasing numbers of space objects, sensors, and decision-making needs create a demand for improved methods of gathering and fusing disparate information to resolve hypotheses about the space object environment. This work focuses on the cognitive work in SSA sensor tasking approaches. A prototype decision support system is developed using a subset of design and information relationship requirements developed through the application of cognitive systems engineering to SSA. This prototype is used in a human-in-the-loop experiment designed to compare the effects of hypothesis-based approaches against traditional sensor tasking approaches. Results from this study show significant improvements in hypothesis resolution performance, temporal demand, and cognitive support using the hypothesis-based approach, while the situation awareness and remaining workload responses were unaffected by the type of sensor scheduling.
Date of Conference: September 11-14, 2018
Track: Poster