Human Variability
in Computer Generated Forces (HV-CGF)
Customer
U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD) under the sponsorship of the Directorate
of Analysis, Experimentation and Simulation (DAES).
Partners
Agent Oriented Software Limited (Cambridge, U.K.), QinetiQ (Farnborough
and Malvern, U.K.), Agent Oriented Software Pty. Ltd. (Melbourne,
Australia), Penn State University (Pennsylvania, U.S.), and University
of Melbourne (Melbourne, Australia).
Background
Simulation is essential in the modern military environment and
is used to develop tactics, evaluate the potential utility of proposed
equipment, train personnel, rehearse missions, and more. To maximize
realism, simulations have relied on 3D computer graphics
and accurate physical models of hardware such as aircraft. Relatively
little attention has been given to the
of human
However, with the increasing prevalence of Operations Other Than War
and combat in urban terrain, there is a pressing need to accurately
model human
The heavily scripted (and therefore inflexible) Computer Generated
Forces (CGF) used to date have been found wanting. This shortcoming
has led to the development of a more flexible technology for
JACK™.
The Problem
Although JACK™ is a proven technology
for
until now it has not addressed the problem of
moderating influences such as emotion
and fatigue. Moderating influences that affect human
are either:
There is a need to implement such moderators so that human
models can predict performance degradation due to fatigue, and illustrate
decline in effectiveness due to reduced participation or limited situation
awareness e.g. due to suppressive fire.
The
Solution
The following software components are being implemented within
the project (see diagram below):
A cognitive
architecture as a layer on top of JACK™, to be known as Co-JACK.
This will allow a variety of cognitive models to be built using
the facilities of the JACK Cognitive Architecture.
Effects of the
moderators, implemented as
Moderator Overlays that can be plugged into the JACK Cognitive
Architecture.
A lightweight generic interface layer, known as the CGF Interconnect
Layer that will facilitate integration with the variety of CGFs,
simulations and synthetic environments used by MoD.
A demonstration where the project’s output will be visualized
using CGF entities within the OneSAF Test Bed (OTB) being controlled
by JACK agents.
The JACK Advantage
The use of JACK offers a number of benefits:
JACK is based upon the sound theory of BDI agents, and relies
on many years of research into rational reasoning about actions
in non-monotonic domains.
JACK is a commercial product with worldwide 24x7 technical
support, used by
and aerospace
in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, France and
Japan.
JACK is the only commercial agent product that provides a team-based
agent capability (JACK Teams). Other than JACK, team capability
is only available in a handful of research systems on an experimental
basis.
JACK offers a direct path to operational exploitation of the
concepts developed in the project because it runs on a wide range
of computers – from PDAs (personal digital assistants) to
mainframes – and integrates with a wide range of synthetic
environments.
Agent Oriented Software
a winner in the prestigious 2004
UK Trade & Investment International Business Awards!
The UK Government has announced these awards as a celebration of Australian business success in the UK, demonstrating Australia's business and entrepreneurial skills at their best. Announced by Trade Minister Mark Vaile in May, the UK Trade & Investment International Business Awards
achievement by Australian-owned operations that have set up in the UK, or entered into a joint venture or research collaboration there.
Agent Oriented Software was the Winner of “New Business Entrant”.
Click here to read the news item on the UK Trade & Investment web site.
