Hybrid systems: models, simulation, and testing [military]

Realization of the vision of a synthetic theater of war (STOW) fully depends on the creation of interoperable simulators, simulations, and fielded systems that realistically represent warfighting concepts, doctrine, forces and weapon systems of friendly, neutral and opposing forces. Distributed interactive simulations (DIS) cannot be relied upon to create the STOW because of problems with synchronization, interoperability and scalability. We provide preliminary ideas concerning how a detailed model being develop as part of the Automation and Robotics program of the US Army Armaments Research, Development and Engineering Center can be applied to address current problems in DIS by providing a timely approach to simulation implementation. Such an approach can be used to provide standard design guidance for linking models into seamless simulation exercises. Existing models can be incorporated by creating the appropriate simulation agents, thereby providing backward compatibility. We will provide an overview of the architecture being developed and details concerning how such low-level, detailed models can be integrated into distributed, agent-based architectures to support early development of flexible test products. Such test products can be made to mature with the engineering design to provide a more realistic set of test products for verification, validation and accreditation of new systems.<>