SBIR-STTR Award

The goal of this program will be to investigate the issues associated with the development of a cognitive nuclear, biological and chemical threat data correlation and munitions effects analysis support system that is capable of supporting both training and operational deployments. BRC is a major support contractor for the Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research & Development Center (ERDC). In this role we support munitions maintenance, development, integration and analysis using several validated computer models including the COBRA, Anti-Terrorist Planner and PENCURV models, which are used to accomplish vulnerability analysis of infrastructure assets using physical modeling. We also support the Army Threat Systems Management Office in the development of tools for cognitive reasoning, battle damage assessment and vulnerability assessment. Our proposal leverages work being accomplished at these agencies by integrating our current work in vulnerability assessment with work in cognitive (knowledge) processing to produce a data correlation architecture that produces a cognitive nuclear, biological, and chemical munitions effects analysis toolkit that facilitates the rapid assessment of multiple variables to produce a graphic depiction of potential munitions effects and create the standardized alerts necessary to support rapid decision-making and dissemination.

Benefits:
If successful, the Phase I program will lay the groundwork for full-scale development and demonstration of a cognitive nuclear, biological, and chemical munitions effects analysis toolkit that facilitates the rapid assessment of multiple variables to produce a graphic depiction of potential munitions effects and create the standardized alerts necessary to support rapid decision-making and dissemination. The Phase II program will fully develop and test the individual components and resolve key technical issues before going on to Phase III.

Keywords:
Cognitive Reasoning, Reasoning Domain, Knowledge Management, Conceptual Graphs, Neural networks, NBC

The overall goal of Phase II is to develop a powerful tool to correlate large amounts of asynchronous data in near real-time and meet current operational requirements for the Joint Command and Control Community for rapid, accurate Battle Damage Assessment and operational assessment. The team will build upon a successful research project in Phase I in which the team was able to demonstrate that cognitive perception is replicated through graph matching using conceptual graphs. The use of a limited template set during the preliminary design phase provided a simple classification of the attack type proving that this technique would work. The basic product developed under the program will have a wide application throughout the Air Force and the rest of the Department of Defense (DOD) as one of the tools resident in the Joint Targeting Toolset (JTT) being developed under the auspices of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). This project has a great deal of user support from the Pentagon Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Targeting Office (JCS/J2T), the Joint Battle Damage Assessment Joint Test & Evaluation program (JBDA/JT&E), The Air Force Command and Control (C2) Battle Laboratory and the National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC). These organizations will provide requirements, technical oversight and review and possible Phase II enhancement support.