LinGo: Automated Speech Recognition and AI Training for AWACS Communication

Intro

Accelint was awarded a Direct-to-Phase II SBIR contract to improve communication training for the Air Force's AWACS mission. The effort delivers LinGo, an automated speech recognition (ASR) and cognitive agent platform that provides objective performance assessment and synthetic crew simulation for aircrew communication training.

Challenge

AWACS operations require effective communication among aircrew, which is one of the six core Crew Resource Management (CRM) skills that aircrews must learn and demonstrate during classroom and simulator training. The Air Force needed an automated system capable of simulating crew communication, assessing trainee performance objectively, and reducing instructor requirements while maintaining training effectiveness.

Solution

Accelint was awarded a Direct-to-Phase II SBIR contract to improve communication training for the Air Force's AWACS mission. The effort delivers LinGo, an automated speech recognition (ASR) and cognitive agent platform that provides objective performance assessment and synthetic crew simulation for aircrew communication training.

AWACS operations require effective communication among aircrew, which is one of the six core Crew Resource Management (CRM) skills that aircrews must learn and demonstrate during classroom and simulator training. The Air Force needed an automated system capable of simulating crew communication, assessing trainee performance objectively, and reducing instructor requirements while maintaining training effectiveness.

LinGo combines ASR and cognitive agent technology to create adaptive, speech-driven training environments. The Air Force can author custom standard and non-standard ASR vocabularies for integration in existing and future training systems. Key capabilities include:

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• Customizable ASR vocabularies: Supports mission-specific and non-standard communication

• Objective speech assessment: Communication is measured and assessed objectively

• Synthetic crew interactions: AI agents use parsed speech data as direct input, responding verbally and taking action within scenarios based on trainee commands

• Scalable crew simulation: Enables training with one or many AWACS crew members played by synthetic entities, providing increased flexibility for mission training while supporting crew communication and coordination

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LinGo effectively replaces human teammates with synthetic cognitive agents and captures trainee speech to automatically assess performance, reducing instructor requirements while supporting crew resource management skill development.

LinGo expands the training utility of ASR technology by integrating automated speech recognition with cognitive agents for AWACS communication training.

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The platform supports Air Force objectives for scalable, authorable training systems that enable objective assessment of tactical communications across various domains and use cases, advancing crew resource management training for AWACS personnel.