Welcome to the EOD Answer Engine!

EOD Answer Engine is a revolutionary new tool being developed to enhance the capabilities and safety of bomb technicians around the globe. Leveraging the latest in artificial intelligence and virtual assistant technology, As part of an effort funded by the Explosive Ordnance Disposal/Explosive Operations (EOD/EXO) Subgroup, which is part of the Irregular Warfare Technical Support Directorate (IWTSD) under the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict (ASD SO/LIC), the EOD Answer Engine will provide technical assistance to bomb technicians and other explosives Operations personnel in identifying things like complex electronic components found in improvised explosive devices (IEDs), unexploded ordnance (UXO), explosive remnants of war (ERW), and other hazardous materials. The EOD Answer engine will also assist in providing technical and scientific information from a variety of disciplines relevant to conducting explosives and bomb response operations.

What is an “Answer Engine” You Might Ask.

When searching for information people typically use one of two methodologies. They either use an internet browser like Google to search for links to websites that might point to the specific information they need, or they engage a chatbot like ChatGPT to query the bot to gain insight into their material of interest. There is a third option however, that is gaining popularity, and tends to provide more focused results, and these are answer engines.

Briefly explained, an answer engine is an AI-driven tool that provides direct answers to user queries by understanding and processing the input based on curated data sources or databases. This offers a much more targeted approach to information relevancy and retrieval, and offers many benefits to users, which is why this approach was chosen for what may be thought of as a virtual technical reach-back assistant for the EOD and explosives operations community. That does not mean that an answer engine is without drawbacks, but at present, this approach offers the most capability.

Below is an outlines of all three approaches, as well as their benefits and drawbacks:

Search Engines

Search engines are software systems designed to carry out web searches, which means to search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a line of results often referred to as search engine results pages.

Benefits

• Extensive Reach: Search engines index billions of web pages and provide access to a vast amount of information on almost any topic.
• Speed: They quickly return results from a broad database of sources.
• User Control: Users can refine their searches using advanced search techniques to narrow down results.

Drawbacks

• Information Overload: Users often face too many results, which may not always be relevant.
• Requires Precise Queries: Effectiveness depends on the user’s ability to formulate good search queries.
• Lacks Depth in Answers: Primarily provides links to sources rather than direct answers, requiring further user effort to obtain information.

Chatbots

Chatbots are AI software that can simulate a conversation (or a chat) with a user in natural language through messaging applications, websites, mobile apps, or through the telephone.

Benefits

• Interactive: Provides a conversational experience, allowing for user engagement in a natural, interactive manner.
• Accessible: Often embedded in websites and apps, making them easily accessible for quick inquiries.
• Support and Efficiency: Useful for customer service and support, handling multiple queries without human fatigue.

Drawbacks

• Limited Understanding: Can fail to understand nuances and complex queries.
• Scripted Responses: Often limited to predefined responses, leading to potential frustration if user needs are not anticipated by the bot’s programming.
• Dependent on Training Data: The quality of a chatbot’s responses is heavily reliant on the data and rules it was trained on.

Answer Engines

Answer engines are AI-driven tools that understand and generate responses to user queries directly, based on data retrieved from their own databases or a curated set of sources.

Benefits

• Direct Answers: Provides concise, direct answers rather than links or references, saving user time.
• Contextual Understanding: Often capable of understanding the context of queries, improving the relevance of answers.
• Sophisticated AI Capabilities: Utilizes advanced natural language processing to interpret and respond to queries.

Drawbacks

• Scope Limitation: May be limited to information within its database or its training.
• Accuracy and Reliability: The quality of responses can vary based on the curated sources.
• Complexity and Cost: Typically more complex and costly to develop and maintain than simpler chatbots or basic search tools.

Is There a Need for an EOD Answer Engine?

A recent study involving 228 bomb technicians from 17 countries uncovered a critical gap in the identification of IED components, their associated hazards, and circuit types by function. This was not a surprise to many in the bomb disposal community, since the pace at which technology has been progressing far outstrips a bomb technician’s ability to recognize all of the potential hazards they might be facing. The solution that EOD Answer Engine will provide is an integrated advanced AI similar to technologies used in Siri and ChatGPT, tailored specifically for explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and explosives operations.

How The EOD Answer Engine Works

Trained on an extensive corpus of EOD-relevant data, the EOD Answer Engine will utilize a sophisticated algorithm to provide informed technical responses to user queries. Technicians can interact with the system using simple voice commands or text queries to receive instant, detailed information about things like electronic components and their functionalities. This system ensures that even lesser-known components and ordnance fuzes are no longer a challenge to identify. This offers the user more time to figure out how to use the information rather than searching for it.

EOD Answer Engine’s Mission and Vision

Our mission is to equip bomb technicians with the tools they need to perform their duties safely and effectively, reducing the guesswork and increasing the precision in critical situations. With EOD Answer Engine, it is possible to envision a world where every bomb technician has immediate access to the most comprehensive and accurate technical information they need, right at their fingertips.

Want to Help Advance This Revolutionary Tool?

One of the more crucial aspects of training a Large Language Model (LLM), for either a chatbot or answer engine, is making sure that when the system is asked a question, you get the types of answer you are expecting, and that the answers are accurate. To do this, you have to ask the LLM lots of questions during training, and have a subject matter expert (SME) verify the response. If you only use one or two SMEs to develop the questions or verify the responses, you could end up with a system that is biased toward the kinds of questions and types of responses those SMEs would provide. The better approach is to have lots of SMEs provide questions, with other SMEs checking the veracity of the answers provided. Since the EOD Answer Engine will provide references from where it drew its answers, an SME can check the source to see if they would have interpreted the information in the same way, and provide feedback to the data scientists training the system so they can make adjustments and improve the accuracy of responses.

If you are a bomb disposal SME (EOD or Public Safety), deminer, UXO technician or other explosives specialist, and want to provide both common and uncommon questions that you might ask, go to our Help Build the Engine page, and sign up to participate. Once your credentials have been verified, you will be sent a link to a Question Submission Form, where you can ask one or a thousand questions if you want. Then in the future, you may be asked if you want to help assess the validity of responses produced by the EOD Answer Engine.

Are you a bomb technician, but not from the US? We are still interested in your participation, and want to understand the types of questions you might ask of the system as well. All we ask is that you have a passing understanding of English as it relates to general technical and scientific material related to bomb disposal.

We’re looking forward to building the EOD Answer Engine together!

V. Bussell – VM Consultants, LLC.