Knowledge Based Expert Systems in Mission Control and Flight Management
...rs, all drastically increase human workload in aircraft. Missions are more dynamic due to highly mobile threats, instant intelligence updates, and advanced battle management and control interfaces. In order to successfully carry out a modern tactical combat mission, aircrew must filter, comprehend, and respond to unimaginable amounts of information from an unimaginable number of sources. Only a combat aircraft equipped with a flexible, real time, adaptive mission planning and execution capability can perform effectively in this environment. In this paper, I want to shine light on the uses of knowledge based expert systems in complex military mission control and flight management. By themselves, expert systems are not that complicated. They consist of three basic components: the knowledge base (or rule base), the data base, and an inference engine. The database contains all currently known facts, which are similar to programming language variables with additional attributes. The rule base contains the logic and knowledge used to solve a particular problem via the database facts. The job of the inference engine is to use the knowledge base and database in reasoning in order to achieve a specific goal. In the simplest form, this is done with a bunch of preprogrammed rules which fire when another specific set of rules are satisfied. In this process of chaining, a combat scenario may be examined by the inference engine and a decision can then be made. In this sample scenario, a fighter aircraft is being painted by an enemy radar. The expert system does this: FACTS Counter_radar enumerated_fact (true, false) Current_radar enumerated_fact (gun, SAM) Radar_mode enumerated_fact (tracking, locked_on, firing) Aircraft_altitude real_fact Minimum_altitude real_fact RULES Rule_1 IF current_radar is SAM & radar_mode...