Analysis of Free-Form Battlefield Reports with Shallow Parsing Techniques

Abstract : A natural way to communicate with C2 systems would be to use natural language. Natural language components are already used in military systems, for example, CommandTalk is a spoken-language interface to the ModSAF battlefield simulator. In project SOKRATES, the authors use shallow parsing techniques for written language to analyze German free-form battlefield reports. These reports are processed by transducers. The extraction result is formalized in feature structures, semantically enriched by the semantic analysis, and the augmented result is then stored in the ATCCIS database. After storage in the database, triggers initiate a change in the position of a tactical symbol on the tactical map. Shallow parsing techniques are the basis for information extraction. In this paper, the authors first introduce the promising field of information extraction, and then describe in detail how shallow parsing techniques are used in project SOKRATES. Twenty-four briefing charts summarize the presentation. (2 figures, 15 refs.)