What PROBES Does

The capabilities of PROBES were designed based on observations of how instructors currently manage training exercises at Fort Knox. Army instructors do an excellent job of managing training exercises, but the tools that they are have at their disposal are severely lacking. Instructors are often forced to write notes to themselves on paper as the exercise proceeds, and must rely on subjective impressions. Also as an exercise unfolds over time, relevant information concerning transient evens or trends may be missed. PROBES automatically tracks and analyzes the significant activity, determines how the performance data should be analyzed depending upon the changing situation, and automatically selects appropriate presentations for displaying the analyzed data to the instructor. This gives instructors the information that they need to assess student performance accurately and consistently, and helps ensure that trainees get the maximum benefit from time spent in the simulation.

To see the obstacles that instructors currently face, look at the following snapshot of a tank platoon in a training exercise. One can see that the tanks are in a particular formation (a wedge formation). Things that are hard to tell from this picture are:

The information necessary to answer these questions is present in the simulation, if instructors look for it in the right place and the right time. PROBES extracts the information from the simulation automatically, permitting the instructor to focus on deciding where to provide instructional feedback.

In contrast, PROBES provides instructors with a coordinated set of presentations. The next image shows two presentations: the current state in the situation space and a log of high-level events and assessments. The situation space enumerates the different types of situations that the trainees may find themselves in, each of which is associated with different tactical and instructional objectives. PROBES automatically determines which situation is currently in force, by monitoring the activities in the simulation. It uses synthesized speech to notify the instructor of state changes, so that the instructor knows the current situation regardless of which display he is currently looking at.

The exercise analysis log records events and analyses that are likely to be relevant to the current situation. Notice in the example how when the trainee platoon initiates Situation Travel (Wedge) [i.e., starts traveling in a wedge formation] PROBES reports when it notices that vehicles in the platoon are in a poor wedge formation. This analysis is performed only when PROBES recognizes that the platoon should be in a wedge. In contrast, when Situation Act occurs [i.e., action on contact is initiated], PROBES starts reporting that the platoon is still in a wedge when it should be on line. At this point it stops reporting on whether the wedge is in proper alignment, since the wedge formation is no longer appropriate for the current situation.

Notice also how the exercise analysis log reports when the red force spots the blue force and vice versa. PROBES monitors not just the movement of the vehicles, via the DIS packet stream, it also accesses state information internal to the vehicle simulations. This allows PROBES to report on the OPFOR's tactics and situation assessments. In the case of the blue forces, PROBES infers their intent based on the current situation and the objectives of the exercise.

As the situation changes, PROBES automatically displays statistics about the unit's performance as appropriate to the current situation. For example, when the platoon is travelling in a wedge formation a diagram such as the one below appears that shows the following distances and depths of the wedge.

If the instructor wishes to see more information about an observed event, he can obtain it simply by clicking on the event notification in the event log. This causes PROBES to bring up an additional window showing local terrain conditions, damage to the vehicles, etc. This information can help the instructor to evaluate whether or not the trainee behavior is appropriate in the current circumstances. This same capability may be used during after action review.

Finally, we are coupling the PROBES analysis with the stealth display. The instructor can click on an event in the exercise analysis log and see a 3D view of the situation at that time. We are experimenting with ways of annotating the stealth display with relevant analysis data. The first diagram below shows a wedge formation annotated to indicate the vehicles' positions relative to expected norms. The red and green lines indicate whether or not the vehicles have recently been in each other's line of sight - green means that the following tank could recently see the leading tank, red means that the following tank could not. The yellow bars are sliders indicating the tank's following distance relative to doctrinal norms. The blue ring represents the following tank's current position, and the red rings represent the upper and lower limits on following distance. If the blue ring is between the red rings, the following distance is within doctrinal norms. This and other annotations allow the instructor to assess the formation accurately from any view direction.

We also can annotate the stealth display to highlight line of sight information, and to make the forces more easily visible. In the image shown below, a red icon is placed to make it easy to see the position of the opposing force, even though it is at a distance. The red arrow indicates that the red force was able to see the blue tank.

These images were created using the Vista Viewer developed by Lockheed Martin as part of the Virtual Environments for Training project.

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