Designing an Interactive Local and Global Decision Support System for Aircraft Carrier Deck Scheduling

In the near future, unmanned aerial vehicles will become part of the naval aircraft carrier operating environment. This will add significant complexity to an already highly constrained and dangerous environment. The move towards a shared manned-unmanned environment with an increasing operational tempo in a reduced manning environment will mean more automation is needed in the planning and scheduling of aircraft, ground vehicles, and crew in these complex environments. However, while automated planning algorithms are fast and able to handle large quantities of information in a short period of time, they are often brittle, unable to cope with changing conditions in highly dynamic environments. Recent research has shown that by allowing high-level interaction between human operators and automated planners, significant increases in overall mission performance can achieved. To this end, a user interface has been developed that allows a human decision maker managing aircraft carrier deck operations the ability to interact directly with a centralized planning algorithm for scheduling aircraft in flight and on the deck (both manned and unmanned), as well as ground vehicles and personnel. This Deck operations Course of Action Planner (DCAP) system leverages the experience and high-level, goal-directed behavior of the human decision maker in conjunction with a powerful automated planning algorithm to develop feasible, robust schedules. This article highlights the design features of DCAP and presents preliminary results from an evaluation designed to quantify the value added by layering in planning and scheduling algorithms into this complex decision process.