EVALUATION PARAMETERS FOR 360-DEGREE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS SYSTEMS ON MILITARY GROUND VEHICLES

The United States military stands to greatly benefit from perpetual advances in vehicle-borne 360-degree Situational Awareness (SA) systems. However, in recent years, a gap has emerged that hinders development of vehicle-borne 360 SA. At a fundamental level, military ground vehicle designers require unambiguous requirements to build effective 360-degree SA systems; and, critical decision-makers must define requirements that offer substantial operational value. To ensure that 360-degree SA systems effectively address Warfighter requirements, the military ground vehicle research and development communities must better understand vehicle-borne 360 SA evaluation parameters and their relevance to current military operations. This paper will therefore describe a set of evaluation parameters across five broad categories that are vital to effective 360-degree SA: namely, vehicle-mounted visual sensors, data transmission systems, in-vehicle displays, intelligent cuing technologies, and human factors issues. This paper clearly explains the links between these parameters and current military operations; and, it argues that such parameters are critical to uniting stakeholders under a common framework to ensure that 360-degree SA systems provide Warfighters with the means to make sound decisions in combat.