Crew Role-player Enabled by Automated Technology Enhancements (CREATE) Navy SBIR FY2014.2 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2014.2 Topic No.: N142-090 Topic Title: Crew Role-player Enabled by Automated Technology Enhancements (CREATE) Proposal No.: N142-090-0156 Firm: Soar Technology, Inc. 3600 Green Court Suite 600 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105-2588 Contact: Brian Stensrud Phone: (407) 542-7830 Web Site: www.soartech.com Abstract: As technology continues to drive changes in Naval operations, warfighters increasingly must exercise strategies in complex team-based environments. A key to successful completion of mission operations in teams is communication. In domains where performers have highly specialized skills, the curation of shared mental models amongst crew is critical. However, current individual training capabilities in the Navy offer trainees no opportunity to exercise communication skills in a cost-effective manner. As such, the Navy is currently interested in augmenting existing task training technology with synthetic role-players. An initial showcase for this ability is to support Tactical Coordinator training in the anti-submarine warfare (ASW), anti-surface warfare (ASUW), and intelligence surveillance reconnaissance (ISR) domains. In this proposal, we will detail how we will develop Soar agents, supported by robust speech recognition and dialogue management, to develop intelligent, interactive synthetic role players for simulated P-8 training. Because of our significant past performance in related areas and our existing technology components, SoarTech will support both a functional system design and proof-of-concept demonstration for select P-8A role players, interacting with the TACCO in a representative training vignette, by the end of Phase I. Benefits: SoarTech has identified a chronic need for intelligent agents within simulated training applications throughout the DoD. The most obvious transition path for the CREATE program is towards existing programs of record that employ these environments. By reducing the requirement for simulation role players and providing more tactically realistic experiences using automated role players, we can provide a compelling business case for funders to incorporate our technology. The U.S. Navy has made significant investments to develop simulated training capabilities for P-8A crewmen including the TACCO. The most significant example is the Part-Task Trainer (PTT), which gives individual crew members the ability to train on many of the procedural and mechanical elements of their role. The capability proposed here, which could easily be expanded to train other roles in the P-8A, will significantly expand the types of activities each crew member can train - specifically activities involving interaction with other crew members as well as the outside world. As such, we envision this proposed system as a supplement to existing training in the PTT. Return