The Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) system is an ambitious effort to take advantage of the tools of the information age to help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the U.S. military services. Defined broadly, the DIS system is an infrastructure for linking simulations, simulators and live military systems of various types from any of the U.S. military services at multiple locations to create realistic, complex, virtual 'worlds' for the simulation of highly interactive activities. It poses serious challenges in the areas of technology, interservice coordination, and verification, validation, and accreditation (VV&A). This report concentrates on the validation challenge and presents a framework that encompasses all of the potential uses of the DIS system. It then illuminates the validation or credibility requirements for each type of use. Because of the breadth of the potential uses of DIS, the resulting framework is general enough to address any military application of models and simulations.
The Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) system is an ambitious effort to take advantage of the tools of the information age to help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the U.S. military services. It involves serious challenges in the areas of technology, interservice coordination, and verification, validation and accreditation (VV & A). The U.S. Army TRADOC Analysis Center (TRAC) has lead responsibility among the services for VV & A of the DIS system. As part of that responsibility, TRAC is sponsoring four efforts aimed at exploring the issues of VV & A of DIS. This report documents one of those four efforts commissioned by the TRAC Director, Mr. Michael Bauman, and is intended to take advantage of previous work done at RAND on exploratory modeling and on validation of models and simulations. The research was conducted in the Force Development and Technology Program of PAND's Arroyo Center, a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the United States Army. The intent of this work is to develop a framework that encompasses all of the potential uses of the DIS system and illuminates the validation or credibility requirements for each type of use. Because of the breadth of the potential uses of DIS, the resulting framework is general enough to address any military application of models and simulations. As such, it should be useful not only to the DIS community, but to developers, users, and consumers of models and simulations throughout the military services.
An assessment of combat modeling & simulation technologies. Discusses simulators which allow military forces to practice & train in situations which would be too costly or risky to practice with real weapons. Chapters include: preparing for the next war; recent developments; simulators; types of simulations; the evolution of distributed interactive simulation; SIMNET; fidelity, fog & friction; verification, validation, & accreditation; standards for DIS scalability & scaling; funding for DIS systems. Graphs, charts, & photos.
“...a much-needed handbook with contributions from well-chosen practitioners. A primary accomplishment is to provide guidance for those involved in modeling and simulation in support of Systems of Systems development, more particularly guidance that draws on well-conceived academic research to define concepts and terms, that identifies primary challenges for developers, and that suggests fruitful approaches grounded in theory and successful examples.” Paul Davis, The RAND Corporation Modeling and Simulation Support for System of Systems Engineering Applications provides a comprehensive overview of the underlying theory, methods, and solutions in modeling and simulation support for system of systems engineering. Highlighting plentiful multidisciplinary applications of modeling and simulation, the book uniquely addresses the criteria and challenges found within the field. Beginning with a foundation of concepts, terms, and categories, a theoretical and generalized approach to system of systems engineering is introduced, and real-world applications via case studies and examples are presented. A unified approach is maintained in an effort to understand the complexity of a single system as well as the context among other proximate systems. In addition, the book features: Cutting edge coverage of modeling and simulation within the field of system of systems, including transportation, system health management, space mission analysis, systems engineering methodology, and energy State-of-the-art advances within multiple domains to instantiate theoretic insights, applicable methods, and lessons learned from real-world applications of modeling and simulation The challenges of system of systems engineering using a systematic and holistic approach Key concepts, terms, and activities to provide a comprehensive, unified, and concise representation of the field A collection of chapters written by over 40 recognized international experts from academia, government, and industry A research agenda derived from the contribution of experts that guides scholars and researchers towards open questions Modeling and Simulation Support for System of Systems Engineering Applications is an ideal reference and resource for academics and practitioners in operations research, engineering, statistics, mathematics, modeling and simulation, and computer science. The book is also an excellent course book for graduate and PhD-level courses in modeling and simulation, engineering, and computer science.
This book presents the thoroughly refereed and revised post-workshop proceedings of the 17th Monterey Workshop, held in Oxford, UK, in March 2012. The workshop explored the challenges associated with the Development, Operation and Management of Large-Scale complex IT Systems. The 21 revised full papers presented were significantly extended and improved by the insights gained from the productive and lively discussions at the workshop, and the feedback from the post-workshop peer reviews.
The Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) system is an ambitious effort to take advantage of the tools of the information age to help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the U.S. military services. Defined broadly, the DIS system is an infrastructure for linking simulations, simulators and live military systems of various types from any of the U.S. military services at multiple locations to create realistic, complex, virtual 'worlds' for the simulation of highly interactive activities. It poses serious challenges in the areas of technology, interservice coordination, and verification, validation, and accreditation (VV&A). This report concentrates on the validation challenge and presents a framework that encompasses all of the potential uses of the DIS system. It then illuminates the validation or credibility requirements for each type of use. Because of the breadth of the potential uses of DIS, the resulting framework is general enough to address any military application of models and simulations.
As intelligent autonomous agents and multiagent system applications become more pervasive, it becomes increasingly important to understand the risks associated with using these systems. Incorrect or inappropriate agent behavior can have harmful - fects, including financial cost, loss of data, and injury to humans or systems. For - ample, NASA has proposed missions where multiagent systems, working in space or on other planets, will need to do their own reasoning about safety issues that concern not only themselves but also that of their mission. Likewise, industry is interested in agent systems that can search for new supply opportunities and engage in (semi-) automated negotiations over new supply contracts. These systems should be able to securely negotiate such arrangements and decide which credentials can be requested and which credentials may be disclosed. Such systems may encounter environments that are only partially understood and where they must learn for themselves which aspects of their environment are safe and which are dangerous. Thus, security and safety are two central issues when developing and deploying such systems. We refer to a multiagent system’s security as the ability of the system to deal with threats that are intentionally caused by other intelligent agents and/or s- tems, and the system’s safety as its ability to deal with any other threats to its goals.
