A survey of some Information Fusion research fields applicable in Operations Other Than War

During a decade, information fusion within the military domain has focussed on putting together a situation picture from the “battle field” where an enemy, known regarding organisation and doctrine, is moving ahead. Clustering and association of observation reports, target tracking and management of sensors and other information collecting resources were prioritised. Today’s situation where Swedish military personnel are expected to act abroad in peace supporting and peace enforcing missions (OOTW – Operations Other Than War) means that the information that is gathered often have a more police than military type of character. It is important too keep contact with the local police and inhabitants, as well as being able to handle riots if needed. Intelligence gathered by humans (Humint) will often be more important than intelligence gathered with sensors. An important intelligence source will be the observations from the soldier’s daily patrolling. The adversary is more diffuse regarding organisation, resources and intentions. The information that is available when the mission is commenced, as well as that collected during an ongoing mission must be structured and made searchable in an efficient way. This report briefly describes the current state-of-the-art within selected areas of information fusion related research that has a potential to support OOTW. Various approaches to text mining, information structuring using wiki technology, uncertainty handling in ontology design, new aspects on user-centric situation awareness, riot simulation and riot control are described.