Mobile AME: A Handheld Application to Support Decision Making for Ammunition Personnel

Wireless technology and the emergence of handheld devices provide new ways to deliver and present information. In the military setting, availability of needed information can be crucial during the decision-making process, especially in a war zone. This paper describes the extension of a Web-based ammunition encyclopedia system developed for the U.S. Army Defense Ammunition Center (DAC) called the ammunition multimedia encyclopedia system (AME). The extension, known as Mobile AME, exploits handheld technology to provide Quality Assurance Specialist Ammunition Surveillance (QASAS) personnel with access to needed ammunition information via a personal digital assistant (PDA). The focus was on developing a highly usable system that supports QASAS decision making and training in choosing the best practices to properly handle an ammunition item including Discarded Military Munitions (DMM). This paper discusses the motivation behind Mobile AME, design and development of the system, and future directions.