Selected Technology Thrusts Supporting Emerging Training Systems: Computer-Based Authoring, Artificial Intelligence, and Embedded Training
This symposium is a follow-up to a sumposium held at last year's HFS meeting. “Training Technology in the 1990s: Development, Application and Research Issues.” Representatives from the three military services discussed how many facets of training technology would affect current and future design applications and research issues relevant to military training systems. Two topics from that session (artificial intelligence and embedded training) and one other topic (computer-based authoring of technical information) have beer selected for in-depth discussion. Each technology is computer-based and has been exploited to only a limited degree. The object of this symposium is to provide a focus for describing how the three technologies are important for emerging and future training systems. For example, nearly all technical information (TI) for maintaining and operating weapon systems in the field is currently paper-based but the Department of Defense is committed to transitioning to electronic delivery of TI within the next decade. Many R&D issues must be resolved in the interim. Similarly, the technologies of embedded training and artificial intelligence have considerable potential for future training systems once a number of R&D issues are successfully addressed. All three services have on-going research and development programs for the technologies covered in this sumposium. Each topic is presented by representatives from at least two military behavioral laboratories: for computer-based authoring, Naval Training Systems Center (NTSC), Naval Personnel Research and Development Center (NPRDC) and Army Research Institute (ARI); for artificial intelligence, Air Force Human Resources Laboratory (AFHRL) and NTSC; and for embedded training, NTSC and ARI. The goals of the symposium are: (1) to make clearer the most pressing R&D issues associated with these technologies, and (2) to discuss how future training systems might incorporate them.