ISSUE 182 : Jul/Aug - 2010 - Australian Defence Force Journal

Distributed Situation Awareness: theory, measurementand application to teamworkPaul M. Salmon, Neville A. Stanton, Guy H. Walker & Daniel P. JenkinsAshgate: Farnham UK, 2009ISBN: 978-0-7546-7058-2Reviewed by Dr Patrick Hew, DSTO‘Situation awareness’ (SA) has a central, almost mythical status within the pantheon of militaryconcepts. In presenting their theory of distributed situation awareness (DSA), the authorsmake a radical departure from existing models. Their research has profound implications forhow the ADF is raised and trained to fight as a force, as distinct from fighting as a collectionof individuals.The DSA theory centres on three ideas:1. That SA can be held by a system. Importantly, systems can be constructed from both humanagents and artefacts. In contrast, many current models assert that SA is unique to humanbeings. In the authors’ view, the systems perspective accounts for SA being formed andutilised in ways not accounted for by the ‘human-only’ perspective. A cited example is acommander using sensors and effectors: the sensors and effectors ‘have’ SA and the systemperforms as a result of combining the components’ SA.2. ‘Compatible’ SA. This is where individual agents have different perspectives of a situation buttheir SA is nonetheless sufficiently ‘compatible’ for effective team operations. CompatibleSA is contrasted against ‘shared’ SA, which proposes that teams become more effective ifthey have a common awareness of the situation.3. ‘Propositional networks’ and ‘transactions’. A propositional network depicts a block ofknowledge, where nodes hold concepts or entities, and vertices record relationships.Agents and artefacts transact propositional networks and this causes SA to be formed andupdated within the system. The authors offer propositional networks as the mechanism formeasuring SA in real-world systems. Transactions can be observed without disrupting thesystem, with propositional networks constructed from communications traffic (analogue ordigital). This is contrasted with existing ‘freeze-probe’ techniques, which freeze the systemand probe the agents with questions.The DSA theory is presented with substantial supporting evidence from earlier theory andcase studies. Researchers will especially appreciate the two chapters of literature review,covering models of SA and measurement techniques. The first case study considers DSA inan energy management enterprise. A further three case studies then look at DSA in militarycontexts. The remaining chapters present the DSA theory and draw implications for the designof command and control systems. The chapters show their origins as individual papers, withsome repetition of arguments and citations.104