Location Related Patterns Stationary Patterns Herringbone Formation two fire teams are alongside one another, with the team on the left facing left while the team on the right faces right. From above, the pattern resembles herringbone twill or a zipper Coil Formation The soldiers at the front watch forward, those at the back watch behind the team, and those on the left and right sides guard the flanks. Line Formation Fire teams were often deployed in a line formation when suppressing a known enemy location. Movement Patterns File Formation Fire teams often advanced in a single file with the last man in the file looking rearward. Bounding Overwatch tactic of alternating movement of coordinated units to allow, if necessary, suppressive fire in support of offensive forward movement or defensive disengagement. Annual Conference of ITA ACITA 2009 Discovering Context Changes in Team Behaviour Steven Poltrock (Boeing), Mark Handel (Boeing), Helen Bowyer (IBM UK), Peter Waggett (IBM UK) Upon first examination the data in these figures may appear chaotic, but close examination reveals patterns that are linked to events that occurred in the simulation and were recorded in the context model. We observed systematic patterns in the ways the team positioned itself when stationary, moved through the battlefield, and fired their weapons. We also found systematic patterns in their spoken communication, which was dominated by the section lead and the fire team lead The challenge: Develop methods for automatically constructing and maintaining dynamic models of mission context by interpreting observable team behavior such as a teams communication, weapon use, and movements. Blue diamonds represent dispersion in meters Pink squares represent speed in meters/second Purple xs represent linearity. Black vertical lines & green triangles indicate the boundaries of each context model state Red vertical lines are the death of a fireteam member Communication Patterns Frequency of Lead Communication The section lead or acting section lead spoke four times as often as the other soldiers. Command Conversation Structure - Most of the leads utterances were explanations of what they planned to do or specific orders. Soldiers often orally acknowledged these orders Geographic Locations locations of objects and areas were described using egocentric reference frames Status Reports 1.The last man in position. 2.Enemy sightings and enemy fire. 3.Smoke grenades deployed. 4.Reloading during suppression fire. 5.Death of a team member. 6.Reports to the Platoon Commander. Cascaded Reports Enemy Locations Origin of enemy fire Object Seen Area of Responsibility Structured Movement Orders A brief increase in speed as the team adopts and then holds a dispersed nonlinear configuration as part of the coil formation They move up the road in file formation to their staging area Both fire teams go into a herringbone formation The two fire team leads reconnoiter, increasing dispersion to 20 meters Team waits in a cluster Begin their manoeuvre in file formation to flank the enemy. They crawl along seeking a good view of the enemy position They run for the cover of a wood line, then they continue crawling forward The fire team splits into two 2-man teams. One of these teams assaults the enemy position and is killed Weapon Related Pattern Suppressing Fire - the rate and the method of suppression fire were controlled by the fire team lead. Speed, dispersion, and linearity of Fire Team 1 in the Fools Road mission.