IMMACCS: A Multi-Agent Decision-Support System

This report describes work performed by the Collaborative Agent Design Research Center for the US Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL), on the IMMACCS experimental decision-support system. IMMACCS (Integrated Marine Multi-Agent Command and Control System) incorporates three fundamental concepts that distinguish it from existing (i.e., legacy) command and control applications. First, it is a collaborative system in which computer-based agents assist human operators by monitoring, analyzing, and reasoning about events in near real-time. Second, IMMACCS includes an ontological model of the battlespace that represents the behavioral characteristics and relationships among real world entities such as friendly and enemy assets, infrastructure objects (e.g., buildings, roads, and rivers), and abstract notions. This object model provides the essential common language that binds all IMMACCS components into an integrated and adaptive decision-support system. Third, IMMACCS provides no ready made solutions that may not be applicable to the problems that will occur in the real world. Instead, the agents represent a powerful set of tools that together with the human operators can adjust themselves to the problem situations that cannot be predicted in advance. In this respect, IMMACCS is an adaptive command and control system that supports planning, execution and training functions concurrently. The report describes the nature and functional requirements of military command and control, the architectural features of IMMACCS that are designed to support these operational requirements, the capabilities of the tools (i.e., agents) that IMMACCS offers its users, and the manner in which these tools can be applied. Finally, the performance of IMMACCS during the Urban Warrior Advanced Warfighting Experiment held in California in March, 1999, is discussed from an operational viewpoint

Research and development of enhanced, integrated and accessible flow metering software for industry.

This project was an investigation to find improvements required in the delivery of software for the flow metering industry. The project has resulted in the repackaging of existing software using appropriate technologies. This included developing software that is accessible via the web and extending functionality whereby a user can import and export information in a variety of data formats. The software was successfully revised and is now commercially accessible to the flow metering industry. The project was performed in the context of a KTP (Knowledge Transfer Partnership) programme with academic supervision provided by TUV NEL (the academic partner) on the premises of KELTON® (the commercial partner) who provided day-to-day project management supervision. The project was in collaboration between the two organisations with the joint aims of facilitating knowledge transfer between the organisations and enhancing the market performance of the commercial partner. The main objective of the study was to gain a full understanding of the needs of the flow metering industry in terms of software and delivery via web or standalone application. Web based applications are new to KELTON® so it was necessary to investigate the methods of delivery. The work concentrated on investigating techniques to modularise code, allowing flexible access to data between applications and on data presentation. iv At an early stage of the project an online market survey program was developed and appropriate questions were used to get customer feedback. The results were analysed and used to prioritise work. Following the review, the current software architecture was found to be unsuitable so new approaches were investigated. The software was created using an n-tier architecture which is a method of splitting common code into separate components. Web based applications were found to be slower than standalone applications. However, web applications benefited from not having to fully install software on individual user PCs therefore allowing access from anywhere that users have access to the network

Software Engineering Tools For Secure Application Development

Software security has become a crucial part of an organization’s overall security strategy due to increasingly sophisticated attacks at the application layer. One of the major concerns in software engineering is the inadequate use of secure software development methods and tools. Such deficiency is caused by a lack of knowledge and training on available secure tools among software developers. This project conducts a thorough investigation of the tools that can be used by developers throughout the software development life cycle to assist in the development of secure applications, including tools used by individuals and teams, classified by open-source or commercial, tools based on project size, etc. This paper also includes a summary table that provides a quick overview of all the tools listed for developers and individuals to use

Process Simulation Unit Operation Models - Review of Open and HSC Chemistry I/O Interfaces

Chemical process modelling and simulation can be used as a design tool in the development of chemical plants, and is utilized as a means to evaluate different design options. The CAPE-OPEN interface standards were developed to allow the deployment and utilization of process modelling components in any compliant process modelling environment. This thesis examines the possibilities provided by the CAPE-OPEN interfaces and the .NET framework to develop compliant, cross-platform process modelling components, particularly unit operations. From the software engineering point of view, a unit operation is a representation of physical equipment, and contains the mathematical model of its functionality. The study indicates that the differences between the CAPE-OPEN standards and Outotec HSC Chemistry Sim are negligible at the conceptual level. On the other hand, at the implementation level, the differences are quite considerable. Regardless of the simulation application being used, the modelling of unit operations requires interdisciplinary skills, and creating tools and methods to ease the development of such models is well justified. The results of this study suggest that CAPE-OPEN both provides various paths to change the way HSC Chemistry Sim works and offers the HSC development team a chance to determine an alternative way to distribute tasks between simulation components. In addition, making HSC Chemistry Sim compliant would bring benefits, such as an extended process modelling component library, and perhaps more publicity. Obviously, the workload required by the changes depends on the chosen path, which invariably entails a lengthy learning curve. This thesis contributes by helping to make that learning curve shorter.Kemiallisten prosessien mallinnusta ja simulointia käytetään kemiallisten tuotantolaitosten suunnittelussa työvälineinä ja niiden avulla voidaan arvioida eri suunnitteluvaihtoehtojen mielekkyyttä. CAPE-OPEN rajapintastandardit on kehitetty mahdollistamaan mallinnuskomponenttien käyttöönotto ja hyödyntäminen missä tahansa yhteensopivassa, standardia noudattavassa, prosessinmallinnusohjelmistossa. Tässä työssä tutkittiin CAPE-OPEN rajapintojen ja .NET -sovelluskehyksen tarjoamia mahdollisuuksia simulointiohjelmistosta riippumattomien, standardia noudattavien, prosessinmallinnuskomponenttien, erityisesti yksikköoperaatioiden kehittämiseen. Ohjelmistoteknisesti yksikköoperaatio on fyysisen prosessilaitteen kuvaus, joka pitää sisällään kyseisen laitteen toiminnan matemaattisen mallin. Osoitetuksi tulee, että erot CAPE-OPEN rajapintastandardien ja Outotec HSC Chemistry Sim -simulointisovelluksen välillä ovat käsitteellisellä tasolla pieniä. Toisaalta, toteutustasolla erot ovat suuria. Riippumatta käytettävästä simulointiohjelmistosta yksikköoperaatioiden mallien kehittäminen vaatii lähtökohtaisesti poikkitieteellistä osaamista, ja onkin perustelua kehittää apuvälineitä, joilla yksikköoperaation mallien luominen olisi mahdollisimman vaivatonta. Työn tulosten perusteella voidaan sanoa, että CAPE-OPEN tarjoaa sekä vaihtoehtoja muuttaa nykyistä HSC Chemistry Simin toimintamallia että kehittäjille mahdollisuuden hahmottaa simulaattorin osien välinen vastuunjako uudessa valossa. Lisäksi, HSC Chemistry Simin muuttaminen yhteensopivaksi standardin kanssa toisi mukanaan etuja, kuten laajennetun komponenttivalikoiman ja mahdollisesti enemmän julkisuutta. Muutoksiin liittyvä työmäärä riippuu valitusta kehityssuunnasta, mutta joka tapauksessa niihin liittyy kestoltaan huomattavan pitkä perehtymisvaihe, jota tämä työ osaltaan auttaa lyhentämään