C3Fire in command and control research

New and envisioned technological means and abilities for exerting command and control have increased the interest of man-machine research in a military context. Although there are many current proposals for how new command and control systems should be designed, many of the proposed properties that are considered advantageous have never been tested or could even be impossible to test in real-world situations. In spite of that, proposed design solutions are generally held valid in many Western countries where developments of major command and control system projects are in progress. An important question is how microworlds can be used for research on team decision-making. The use of microworlds gives us the possibility to create controlled settings and the opportunity to use advanced monitoring tools to study the subjects. Our studies indicate that the microworld concept, even though the simulation is fairly simple, reflects some of the crucial aspects of team-work in dynamic settings. The article presents results from a study in command and control using the C3Fire microworld (http://www.c3fire.org). Results and methodological issues are discussed.

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