This thesis investigates computer-based support tools to facilitate decision-making in civilian and military operations. As flexibility is essential when preparing for unknown threats to society, this support has to be general. Further motivations for flexible and general solutions include reduced costs for technical development and training, as well as faster and better informed decision-making. We use the term Effects-Based Management of Operations to denote the accomplishment of desired effects beyond traditional military goals by the deployment of all types of available capabilities. Supporting this work, DISCCO (Decision Support for Command and Control) is a set of network-based services including Command Support, helping commanders in the human, collaborative and continuous process of evolving, evaluating, and executing solutions to their tasks, Decision Support, improving the human process by integrating automatic and semi-automatic generation and evaluation of plans, and a Common Situation Model, capturing the hierarchical structure of the situation regarding own, allied, neutral, and hostile resources. The use of the DISCCO has been investigated in three different applications: planning for establishing surveillance of an operation area, planning for NBC defense, and executing a riot control operation. Together, these studies indicate that DISCCO is applicable in many different classes of Effects-Based Management of Operations. Hence, this generic concept will contribute to the work of both the civilian and military defense in dealing with a broad range of current and future threats to the society.

<p>Command and control is central in all distributed tactical operations such as rescue operations and military operations. It takes place in a complex system of humans and artefacts, striving to reach common goals. The command and control complexity springs from several sources, including dynamism, uncertainty, risk, time pressure, feedback delays and interdependencies. Stemming from this complexity, the thesis approaches two important and related problem areas in command and control research. On a general level, the thesis seeks to approach the problems facing the command and control operators and the problems facing the designers in the associated systems development process.</p><p>We investigate the specific problem of operators losing sight of the overall perspective when working with large maps in geographical information systems with limited screen area. To approach this problem, we propose high-precision input techniques that reduce the need for zooming and panning in touch-screen systems, and informative unit representations that make better use of the screen area available. The results from an experimental study show that the proposed input techniques are as fast and accurate as state-of-the-art techniques without the need to resort to zooming. Furthermore, results from a prototype design show that the proposed unit representation reduces on-screen clutter and makes use of off-screen units to better exploit the valuable screen area.</p><p>Developing command and control systems is a complex task with several pitfalls, including getting stuck in exhaustive analyses and overrated reliance on rational methods. In this thesis, we employ a design-oriented research framework that acknowledges creative and pragmatic ingredients to handle the pitfalls. Our approach adopts the method of reconstruction and exploration of mission histories from distributed tactical operations as a means for command and control analysis. To support explorative analysis of mission histories within our framework, we propose tools for communication analysis and tools for managing metadata such as reflections, questions, hypotheses and expert comments. By using these tools together with real data from live tactical operations, we show that they can manage large amounts of data, preserve contextual data, support navigation within data, make original data easily accessible, and strengthen the link between metadata and supporting raw data. Furthermore, we show that by using these tools, multiple analysts, experts, and researchers can exchange comments on both data and metadata in a collaborative and explorative investigation of a complex scenario.</p> / Report code: LiU-Tek-Lic-2004:61.

Command generation is a process by which input commands are constructed or modified such that the system's response adheres to a set of desired performance specifications. Previously, a variety of command generation techniques such as input shaping have been used to reduce residual vibration, limit transient deflection, conserve fuel or adhere to numerous other performance specifications or performance measures. This dissertation addresses key issues regarding the application of command generation techniques to tethered satellite systems. The three primary objectives of this research are as follows: 1) create analytically commands that will limit the deflection of flexible systems 2) combine command generation and feedback control to reduce the retrieval time of tethered satellites, and 3) develop command generation techniques for spinning tether systems. More specifically, the proposed research addresses six specific aspects of command generation for tethered satellites systems: 1) create command shapers that can limit the trajectory tracking for a mass under PD control to a pre-specified limit in real time 2) create commands analytically that can limit the transient deflection of a model with one rigid-body and one flexible mode during rest-to-rest maneuvers 3) command generation for a 2-D model of earth-pointing tethered satellites without tether flexibility, 4) command generation for a 2-D model of earth-pointing tethered satellites to reduce tether retrieval time and reduce swing angle, 5) command generation for a 3-D model of earth-pointing tethered satellites without tether flexibility, and 6) command generation for improved spin-up of spinning tethered satellite systems. The proposed research is anticipated to advance the state-of-the-art in the field of command generation for tethered satellite systems and will potentially yield improvements in a number of practical satellite and tether applications.

Distributed generation (DG) has received much attention recently due to environmental consciousness and rising of the energy efficiency. However, DG interconnecting to low-voltage distribution system may cause voltage variation, and a lot of single-phase DG or single-phase load may result in voltage unbalance. This thesis presents a distributed-STATCOM (D-STATCOM) to alleviate variation of both positive-sequence and negative-sequence voltages at the fundamental frequency. The D-STATCOM operates as susceptance and conductance at the fundamental positive-and negative-sequence frequency, respectively. The susceptance and conductance commands are dynamically tuned according to voltage fluctuation at the installation location. Therefore, the positive-sequence voltage can be restored to the nominal value as well as the negative-sequence voltage can be suppressed to an allowable level. Computer simulations and experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.

<p>This thesis investigates computer-based support tools to facilitate decision-making in civilian and military operations. As flexibility is essential when preparing for unknown threats to society, this support has to be general. Further motivations for flexible and general solutions include reduced costs for technical development and training, as well as faster and better informed decision-making.</p><p>We use the term <i>Effects-Based Management of Operations</i> to denote the accomplishment of desired effects beyond traditional military goals by the deployment of all types of available capabilities. Supporting this work, DISCCO (Decision Support for Command and Control) is a set of network-based services including <i>Command Support</i>, helping commanders in the human, collaborative and continuous process of evolving, evaluating, and executing solutions to their tasks, Decision Support, improving the human process by integrating automatic and semi-automatic generation and evaluation of plans, and a <i>Common</i> <i>Situation Model</i>, capturing the hierarchical structure of the situation regarding own, allied, neutral, and hostile resources.</p><p>The use of the DISCCO has been investigated in three different applications: planning for establishing surveillance of an operation area, planning for NBC defense, and executing a riot control operation. Together, these studies indicate that DISCCO is applicable in many different classes of Effects-Based Management of Operations. Hence, this generic concept will contribute to the work of both the civilian and military defense in dealing with a broad range of current and future threats to the society.</p>

No description available.

Thesis (M. P. A.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2008. / "Spring 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-99).

Thesis (M.S. in Leadership and Human Resource Development)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2002. / AD-A405 963. Thesis advisor(s): Susan Hocevar, William Kemple. Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-160). Also available online.

Command and control is central in all distributed tactical operations such as rescue operations and military operations. It takes place in a complex system of humans and artefacts, striving to reach common goals. The command and control complexity springs from several sources, including dynamism, uncertainty, risk, time pressure, feedback delays and interdependencies. Stemming from this complexity, the thesis approaches two important and related problem areas in command and control research. On a general level, the thesis seeks to approach the problems facing the command and control operators and the problems facing the designers in the associated systems development process. We investigate the specific problem of operators losing sight of the overall perspective when working with large maps in geographical information systems with limited screen area. To approach this problem, we propose high-precision input techniques that reduce the need for zooming and panning in touch-screen systems, and informative unit representations that make better use of the screen area available. The results from an experimental study show that the proposed input techniques are as fast and accurate as state-of-the-art techniques without the need to resort to zooming. Furthermore, results from a prototype design show that the proposed unit representation reduces on-screen clutter and makes use of off-screen units to better exploit the valuable screen area. Developing command and control systems is a complex task with several pitfalls, including getting stuck in exhaustive analyses and overrated reliance on rational methods. In this thesis, we employ a design-oriented research framework that acknowledges creative and pragmatic ingredients to handle the pitfalls. Our approach adopts the method of reconstruction and exploration of mission histories from distributed tactical operations as a means for command and control analysis. To support explorative analysis of mission histories within our framework, we propose tools for communication analysis and tools for managing metadata such as reflections, questions, hypotheses and expert comments. By using these tools together with real data from live tactical operations, we show that they can manage large amounts of data, preserve contextual data, support navigation within data, make original data easily accessible, and strengthen the link between metadata and supporting raw data. Furthermore, we show that by using these tools, multiple analysts, experts, and researchers can exchange comments on both data and metadata in a collaborative and explorative investigation of a complex scenario. / <p>Report code: LiU-Tek-Lic-2004:61.</p>

Leadership and Military Power – Can a Leadership Approach Provide a Competitive Advantage? When does a military commander's leadership approach give his or her unit a performance advantage? U.S. Army senior leaders have asserted that forces led using the mission command approach will have an edge in future combat. Mission command decentralizes decision-making to empower subordinates to react more successfully and seize battlefield opportunities. American forces have struggled to employ mission command partly because of a lack of understanding of the approach. This study applied two concepts from organizational psychology, empowering leadership and directive leadership, to better define and examine mission command and an opposing approach, detailed command. I observed three combat-like exercises at the U.S. Army's Combat Training Centers to evaluate the impact of leadership on unit performance. Using qualitative data gained from my observations and interviews with unit leaders, I found that empowering leadership/ mission command could provide significant advantages to units with high team experience. However, I found that empowered units with low team experience tended to perform worse than similar units led by directive leadership/ detailed command.