How can we counter the risk of "information flood" caused by the BD (Battlespace Digitization)? The purpose of this project is to provide a range of tools, complementing the traditional Cartographic Information System (CIS), to facilitate and accelerate the understanding of complex tactical situations. The idea is to propose, for every military (logistics, engineering, combat, future manoeuvre ...) or civil (security, victims rescue, evacuation, ...) functional profile, three complementary tools: (1) a visualisation of the common operational picture and ongoing actions; (2) an aid for understanding through an analysis of past events / operational reports offering an automatic synthesis of history; and (3) a collaborative tool for manœuvre conception. This trilogy allows to equip officers and decision makers in their understanding of complex situations, in their briefing work, thus accelerating the decision-making loop within the PC. It will be offered on touch pad to provide an easily deployable tool, mobile with each decision-maker, allowing them to work independently or collaboratively. Moreover each of these bricks is customised depending on the functional profile of the officer (infantry, logistics and engineering). In this project, we propose to enrich the outcome model from the initial ASTRID project, TACTIC, to meet such a matrix of specific needs by developing a range of tools for (1) offering a “function” view (weapon, profession) of the Common Operational Picture (COP); (2) facilitating the understanding of the current situation through an analysis of the causal structure of past events thanks to a new Sense Making technology inspired by Narrative Intelligence research; (3) accelerating the integration of orders and communication within the decision cell by providing an optimised and intelligent order transmission or tactical drawing system. In order to do this, and to increase the TRL of the outcome model from TACTIC , it is necessary to rework some functional components such as the cartographic management, or to enrich the coupling with SWORD in order to take full advantage of the simulated environment, and benefit from a realistic environment for evaluation and validation. MASA Group, a SME, and the laboratory LabSTICC, continue to work together to enrich and improve the outcome model of the initial ASTRID project. In order to offer an evaluation in a realistic environment, demonstrators of tools from the project will be stimulated thanks to a constructive C2 simulation operationally used by the army, SWORD, which will generate reports and realistic accounts in the context of operational scenarios.

As part of the digitalization of the battlefield, Command & Control (C2) systems are already widespread in the military. These information and communication systems give their user a view of the operational situation, typically with a map overlaid with symbols that represent units. The system gathers information from several sources and lets the user communicate and give orders directly. Such systems are also being used, or on the way to being used, by first responders or large operators in the private sector. There is a variety of C2 systems, sometimes used together, as in the French Army where several C2’s coexist. Interoperability between C2 systems is therefore a major issue for the efficient flow of information between ranks, services, armies or even countries inside a multi-national coalition. An interoperability standard between C2 systems, the Battle Management Language (BML), is emerging. It is being adopted by the militaries of France and several countries belonging to NATO. It allows coding messages exchanged between C2 systems in a normalized way. Now, any design and development around C2 systems must support BML. Military C2 systems that are to be used on the field generally have a tactile interface of small size to address the requirements of mobility and simplicity of use in difficult situations. Up to now, interfaces have been complex to use and require training. The objective of the TACTIC project is to provide an intelligent interface on a tablet for a C2 system to handle commands that comply with the BML format. This interface will take advantage of all possibilities of gestural touch interfaces (1) to be able to effectively provide the information that applies to a broad spectrum of BML orders, and (2) to develop a cognitive man-machine interface that takes into account the context and history of use to enable actors to manage the complexity of the system. The partners involved in the TACTIC project are: - MASA Group, project leader, makes software for military simulation. MASA SWORD, its constructive simulation software, will be used to test the interface that will be developed. MASA Group brings its experience with the Defense sector and developing software. - The contribution of the Lab-STICC (Human-System and Virtual Environments team) will focus on modeling elements and manual transformation of models, to develop a grammar of easy-to-use touch interactions on small surfaces adapted for a framework of complex use. - UPMC-LIP6 will bring (1) its experience in the context modeling actors’ behaviors during interaction with an interface and (2) its software "CxG_Platform" to perform the modeling in a uniform representation of the elements of knowledge, reasoning and contexts. - Intuitive World will use its cognitive approach to human behavior in situations of problem solving during the knowledge acquisition phase and will participate in modeling of human behavior during interactions with the interface. After a preliminary phase for studying the problem and specification of use cases, UPMC-LIP6 and Intuitive World will model how actors manage BML orders in a formalism representing uniformly elements of knowledge, reasoning and contexts. Then, Lab-STICC will develop a grammar of gestures and an interaction model adapted to BML and tablet touch screens. They will then combine their results to reach a smart touch interface model that explicitly incorporates the notion of context to present to the user the most relevant commands and information. Their results will be implemented in two tools by MASA, a C2 system compatible with BML that will integrate the developed interface, and simulation software with which the C2 will communicate and whose simulated operational situation will evolve depending on the messages coming from the user, as a test and validation tool for the interface.

The Lesser Antilles volcanic arc of the West Indies is the smallest volcanic region in the world with 21 live volcanoes. However it consists of 12 different countries with different socio-economic characteristics and elevated population densities, most of which concentrate near the coast as well as on the flanks of live volcanoes. This region is known worldwide for having experienced the most lethal eruption caused by a primary volcanic phenomena, and one of the worst in recorded history. On May 8 1902, a laterally-directed pyroclastic density current destroyed the town of Saint-Pierre in Martinique killing 28 000 people. An additional 3000 people perished in the town of Morne Rouge on August 30 1902. Volcanic risks will pose an increasing threat to insular populations also vulnerable to other hazards such as hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis. Over the last 14 years the exceptionally long-lived and on-going eruption of Soufrière Hills volcano on Montserrat has dramatically affected the island's population and fragile socio-economic equilibrium. The capital city of Plymouth has been ravaged like St. Pierre 100 years ago. The towns of Basse-Terre (Guadeloupe) and Saint-Pierre (Martinique) are exposed to volcanic hazards as was Plymouth. Soufrière of Guadeloupe and Montagne Pelée threaten up to 200 000 people directly and perhaps more than 500 000 additional people indirectly in the region incase of renewed magmatic eruptions of high magnitude that could also involve edifice collapse. Risk assessment and management are thus fundamental scientific, economic, and political issues, especially in densely populated areas. The most efficient treatment of these aspects requires accurate quantitative assessment and mitigation strategies, the development of effective tools for forecasting, prediction and management of crises and the promotion of capacity building and sustainable development within such regions. It implies that scientists, engineers, governments, civil protection agencies, communities develop synergistic activities. The geologic past of both volcanoes is well-known, the volcanoes are well-monitored,and numerous independent studies in the social sciences have improved the overall assessment of volcanic risk in Guadeloupe and Martinique. Nevertheless, a nationally-funded multidisciplinar French research project has never addressed the challenges of state-of-the-art risk quantitative assessment, crisis management and prevention in one integrated approach building on a synergy between various disciplines. In the CASAVA project (Compréhension des Aléas, Scénarios, et risques Volcaniques aux Antilles), we aim at reducing this gap by providing a state-of-the-art integrated basic research strategy for achieving quantitative volcanic risk assessments that takes into account the socio-cultural dimension and is focused on active volcanoes of the French Lesser Antilles, Soufrière of Guadeloupe and Montagne Pelée of Martinique. Building on the important corpus of lessons learnt from the study and management of the Soufrière Hills eruption, CASAVA will provide new insights into the reconstruction of the eruptive past of La Soufrière and Montagne Pelée, improved modelling of key volcanic hazards and their impact, as well as improved probabilistic tools and vulnerability assessment methodologies to address the forecasting, management, and prevention of volcanic risks from a future eruption. The CASAVA project is a multidisciplinary research project that spans the entire spectrum of disciplines and includes: earth sciences, computer and engineering science applied to simulation of volcanic phenomena, physical geography and the analysis of territorial vulnerability, social sciences and analysis of socio-cultural and human vulnerability, archeology of volcanic impact on recent pre-Colombian human occupation, legal issues of natural disasters, probabilistic decision making and risk assessment, crisis management and mitigation measures, institutional policy on risk management, the role of natural disaster insurance policy on risk management, and applied mathematics and artificial intelligence to simulate realistic eruption scenarios, impact, and population behavior.