US army employment of unattended ground sensors

Army research initiatives include research and development of unattended ground sensors (UGS). UGS will improve the ability of tactical units to collect information and are expected to play an increasingly important role. Sensors are of several types, including acoustic, seismic, magnetic, electric field, and imaging. It is expected that deployed sensors will be self-organizing to form a sensor field. Because of power and communication limitations, it is anticipated that the sensor field will be required to process data locally, and report only the results of this analysis. Given detection, the report will include the classification or identification of an object transiting the field, as well as the field's self-assessed level of confidence in the estimate. This study examined the level of confidence required before a decision maker would reallocate resources based on the report. Combat arms officers were provided a tactical situation and the sensor field level of confidence required before commitment of forces was elicited. A computer model was then used to investigate what sensor mixtures and densities were required to meet this threshold. The impact of correct and incorrect decisions for a tactical situation was examined using high-resolution combat model. Additionally, the responsible unit level and doctrinal employment were examined.