An Advanced Knowledge and Design Acquisition Methodology: Application for the Pilot's Associate

Abstract : This report documents the creation, development, and evaluation of an advanced knowledge and design acquisition methodology. The methodology develops user requirements along three separate yet integrated perspectives: (1) intuitive/experiential knowledge, (2) structural/functional models, and (3) knowledge as design. Three specific tools to implement perspectives; concept mapping, IDEF modeling, and design storyboarding are discussed. An integrative structure is proposed as an interactive way to let users and other design team members assimilate, deepen, and combine knowledge for the purpose of developing intelligent systems and human machine interface designs. Hence, system designs are directly derived from 'user engineering' and from user conceptualization and participation. The project applies this methodology to the Pilot's Associate program which resolves complex knowledge acquisition/representation requirements. Results indicate that pilots could successfully reveal their own comprehension of an air to ground mission and transform this conceptual knowledge into actual designs for an intelligent pilot vehicle interface. The ability of this methodology to elicit multiple knowledge perspectives and to preserve them in an integrated form (which facilitates interaction with new domain experts in the future) creates an effective means for all phases of the system design.