Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality Prototypes for Enhanced Mission Command/Battle Management Command and Control (BMC2) Execution

This work provides an overview of three prototype augmented reality (AR) applications developed for the Microsoft HoloLens with the intention of exploring the strengths and weaknesses of AR for supporting planning and decision making–specifically, within the domain of US Army Mission Command and Battle Management Command and Control (BMC2) execution. We present each prototype application accompanied by the target audience from whom we sought feedback, key features of the application, and technical goals we hoped to achieve, demonstrate, and evaluate. Findings with respect to AR strengths and weaknesses, framed around the technical goals of each of the AR applications, are then presented to begin to shed light on limitations and opportunities of the state-of-the-art in AR hardware, and the potential to support Mission Command and BMC2 stakeholders. This material is based upon work supported by the Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC) under Contract No. W56KGU-18-C-0002. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of CERDEC.