Human-computer interaction issues in a battlefield reasoning system

In this paper we present a methodology for developing intelligent computer agents and blackboards to assist planners in grasping the situation quickly and making high quality decisions. We illustrate this methodology in the context of a specific military planning task. Military planners have many cognitive challenges when creating and revising battle plans. At all stages of planning planners must contend with being overloaded with information, while having little time in which to process it. We will illustrate use of the methodology in the design of an intelligent agent and human-computer interface for the planning task of Course of Action (COA) generation.