Visualizations and Interaction Methods for Resilient Submarine Decision Support

Abstract

Submarine commanders must make decisions rapidly to carry out increasingly complex missions. However, the rate of information delivery has outpaced the capacity of the command and control systems that prioritize and filter it. Technology could help commanders filter through data to make decisions, but this decision support must be carefully engineered to support the development of resilient courses of action (COAs). This paper details our experiences applying resilience engineering to submarine decision support. It focuses on designing two features that are essential for a resilient decision support system: (1) user interaction with a decision support system, which blends the user's operational insights with the technical aspects of the decision support system; and (2) visual representations of trade-offs. The paper ends with a discussion of the lessons learned from this work and a set of recommendations for designing decision support systems.