Supporting Spatial Awareness with a Hand-Held GPS-Device – Effects of Degree of Support and Light Conditions

Abstract

Navigating in the terrain and at the same time keeping track other groups in the unit, enemy targets, and important terrain positions is often a hard task for dismounted soldiers, especially in night-ops conditions. To investigate if performance can be improved by GPS support an experiment was performed. A platoon navigated in the terrain and squad leaders indicated direction and distance to other squads and fixed terrain positions, both in daylight and darkness. Tasks were performed with full GPS support both for navigation and indication, with limited GPS support only for navigation, and with no GPS support. Precision of indications of direction to moving positions improved with full GPS support. To improve indication of distance with GPS support, functions that provide distance information must be used. A GPS device in combination with a night vision device can be used to support these tasks in darkness.