Human Performance Wing Developing Software to Help Reduce Deaths in War Zones

  • Published
  • By Elizabeth Long
  • 711th Human Performance Wing
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB --  The Air Force Research Laboratory, 711th Human Performance Wing, Human Effectiveness Directorate is developing software to help prevent U.S. troops from getting killed or injured by improvised explosive devises in war zones.

The software, Risk Assessment for Frontline Troops, is being developed by Infoscitex Corporation in coordination with the Human Effectiveness Directorate under a Small Business Innovative Research agreement.

RAFT will aid mission planners in avoiding areas and routes in Iraq and Afghanistan that likely have IEDs. RAFT mines information from existing databases to determine patterns and come up with a predictive solution to where the greatest likelihood of IEDs would be located.

"Our goal is to combine the software with existing systems that allow the mission planner to plan missions with the lowest possible risk based on a number of factors," explained John Plaga, Technical Monitor for RAFT with the Human Effectiveness Directorate, Biosciences and Performance Division, Bioinformatics Section. "Those factors include number of vehicles and troops, routes taken, past IED incidents, weather conditions and social issues."

The software allows users to combine information collected from a number of sources, including paid informers, enemy interrogations, field observations, past mission reports, weather and terrain to provide multiple ideal routes to the field commander in real time. It will have an easy-to-use graphical user interface running on a rugged laptop that can be carried in the field.

RAFT will not only indicate what the safest route is, but it will explain why it is the safest route.

"So along the route," Plaga said, "there may be flags that indicate that an area may be higher risk. The mission planner can look at that area with the software to determine if it is an acceptable risk or if he or she should avoid the area."

Plaga said the software works something like an Internet mapping service. "The mission planner wants to go from point A to point B within a certain timeframe," he explained. "The safest route would be the planner's number one priority. Then the planner can add other factors like the shortest time and/or distance. The software would allow variations depending on the urgency of the mission."

The RAFT system will be designed with an open-system architecture to allow users to add new sources of information as needed and provide continuous data collection and mission evaluation.