Distributed agent-based building evacuation simulator

The optimisation of the evacuation of a building plays a fundamental role in emergency situations. The behaviour of individuals, the directions that civilians receive, and the actions of the emergency personnel, will affect the success of the operation. We describe a simulation system that represents the individual, intelligent, and interacting agents that cooperate and compete while evacuating the building. The system also takes into account detailed information about the building and the sensory capabilities that it may contain. Since the level of detail represented in such a simulation can lead to computational needs that grow at least as a polynomial function of the number of the simulated agents, we propose an agent-oriented Distributed Building Evacuation Simulator (DBES). The DBES is integrated with a wireless sensor network which offers a closed loop representation of the evacuation procedure, including the sensed data and the emergency decision making

Unified Reversible Life Cycle for Future Interoperable Enterprise Distributed Information Systems

Best Paper AwardInternational audienceThis paper aims at improving the re-implementation of existing information systems when they are called to be involved in a system of systems, i.e. a federation of enterprise information systems that interoperate. The idea is reusing the local experiences coming from the development of the original information system with the process of Model Discovery and Ontological approach. We give first, a review of ongoing researches on Enterprise Interoperability. The MDA can help to transform concepts and models from the conceptual level to the implementation. The HLA standard, initially designed for military M&S purpose, can be transposed for enterprise interoperability at the implementation level, reusing the years of experiences in distributed systems. From these postulates, we propose a MDA/HLA lifecycle to implement distributed enterprise models from the conceptual level of federated enterprise interoperability approach. In addition to this classical development, we propose a model reversal methodology to help re-implement the legacy information system, in order to achieve the interoperability with other systems

Merging Application Models in a MDA Based Runtime Environment for Enterprise Information Systems

The issue of merging source code based applications is very problematic, particularly when involving code from disparate sources, due to the typical unsuitability of available source code for software merging. The relatively recent field of model driven architecture is primely involved in the definition and development of the source model structures for model based applications and in developing transformations from the abstract models to various executable formats. The authors are also involved in these MDA activities in the development of their G2 prototype system targeted at the specific domain of enterprise information system style applications. They have reviewed various methods for merging application models within this domain and describe the fundamentals of three application model integration methods from their G2 system; standard element referencing, virtual data element mapping and element envelopment that can be used to provide practical and simple application model merging at both the design time and runtime of a model based production system, to produce a working integrated merged application

Critical Infrastructure Modeling: An Approach to Characterizing Interdependencies of Complex Networks & Control Systems

Critical infrastructure control systems face many challenges entering the 21st century, including natural disasters, cyber attacks, and terrorist attacks. Revolutionary change is required to solve many existing issues, including gaining greater situational awareness and resiliency through embedding modeling and advanced control algorithms in smart sensors and control devices instead of in a central controller. To support design, testing, and component analysis, a flexible simulation and modeling capability is needed. Researchers at Idaho National Laboratory are developing and evaluating such a capability through their CIPRsim modeling and simulation framework

Building a high-level architecture federated interoperable framework from legacy information systems

International audienceThis paper aims at improving the re-implementation of existing information systems when they are called to be involved in a system of systems, i.e. a federation of enterprise information systems that interoperate. The idea is reusing the local experiences coming from the previous development of the existing information system with the process of model discovery. To avoid redeveloping the entire system when the enterprise needs to cooperate with others, this approach proposes to create local interfaces to code and decode information. The interfaces are instantiated by using models discovered. The interfaces are developed in accordance with the high-level architecture (HLA) standard that proposes message interoperability and synchronisation mechanisms among distributed systems. First, this paper recalls the strong points of model-driven architecture (MDA)/architecture-driven modernisation methodologies for model transformation from conceptual level to implementation and the HLA standard. Then, a MDA and HLA framework is proposed to implement distributed enterprise components from the conceptual level through a federated enterprise interoperability approach. In addition, a model reversal methodology is developed under the framework to guide the re-implementation of legacy information systems to achieve desired interoperability with other systems. To extend the scope of the approach, implemented Web services are combined with HLA in order to facilitate the use of HLA in large distributed execution. This paper ends with an implementation example for validating the approach

JSB Composability and Web Services Interoperability Via Extensible Modeling & Simulation Framework (XMSF), Model Driven Architecture (MDA), Component Repositories, and Web-based Visualization

Study Report prepared for the U. S. Air Force, Joint Synthetic Battlespace Analysis of Technical Approaches (ATA) Studies & Prototyping Overview: This paper summarizes research work conducted by organizations concerned with interoperable distributed information technology (IT) applications, in particular the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) and Old Dominion University (ODU). Although the application focus is distributed modeling & simulation (M&S) the results and findings are in general easily applicable to other distributed concepts as well, in particular the support of operations by M&S applications, such as distributed mission operations. The core idea of this work is to show the necessity of applying open standards for component description, implementation, and integration accompanied by aligned management processes and procedures to enable continuous interoperability for legacy and new M&S components of the live, virtual, and constructive domain within the USAF Joint Synthetic Battlespace (JSB). JSB will be a common integration framework capable of supporting the future emerging simulation needs ranging from training and battlefield rehearsal to research, system development and acquisition in alignment with other operational requirements, such as integration of command and control, support of operations, integration of training ranges comprising real systems, etc. To this end, the study describes multiple complementary Integrated Architecture Framework approaches and shows, how the various parts must be orchestrated in order to support the vision of JSB effectively and efficiently. Topics of direct relevance include Web Services via Extensible Modeling & Simulation Framework (XMSF), the Object Management Group (OMG)’s Model Driven Architecture (MDA), XML-based resource repositories, and Web-based X3D visualization. To this end, the report shows how JSB can − Utilize Web Services throughout all components via XMSF methodologies, − Compose diverse system visualizations using Web-based X3D graphics, − Benefit from distributed modeling methods using MDA, and − Best employ resource repositories for broad and consistent composability. Furthermore, the report recommends the establishment of necessary management organizations responsible for the necessary alignment of management processes and procedures within the JSB as well as with neighbored domains. Continuous interoperability cannot be accomplished by technical standards alone. The application of technical standards targets the implementation level of the system of systems, which results in an interoperable solution valid only for the actual 2 implementation. To insure continuity, the influence of updates, upgrades and introduction of components on the system of systems must be captured in the project management procedures of the participating systems. Finally, the report proposes an exemplifying set of proof-of-capability demonstration prototypes and a five-year technical/institutional transformation plan. All key references are online available at http://www.movesinstitute.org/xmsf/xmsf.html (if not explicitly stated otherwise)

Avoiding Another Green Elephant – A Proposal for the Next Generation HLA Based on the Model Driven Architecture

ABSTRACT: When looking through the proceedings of the recent Simulation Interoperability Workshops, a lot of papers- some of them even awarded by the committee- are dealing with alternative concepts outside or beyond the High Level Architecture (HLA): Web Services, the extensible Markup Language (XML), Java Beans, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), etc. Similarly, requirements driven by interoperability issues have resulted in the need to use meta modeling, adaptive models, and common repositories. The use of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) as a model description language is also rapidly becoming a standard. All these concepts have relations to the HLA, but they are not part of it. There seems to be the danger that HLA is overrun by respective developments of the free market and will become irrelevant finally. A few years ago, another "Green Elephant " faced the same fate: The program language Ada was mandated to be used for military applications but became irrelevant for commercial applications. Underestimating the power of the free market- especially C++, Java, and the Internet protocols- Ada barely survived the wave of emerging technologies and tools. Today we might soon observe HLA fading into a similar insignificance if it doesn't continue to evolve. The good news is that a potential solution already is formulated. First, the shortcomings of HLA are known and respective methods and processes are already identified in the papers mentioned before. Second, only recently the Object Management Group (OMG) introduced the Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) initiave as an approach t

A UML-based tool for designing HLA federates

Master'sMASTER OF SCIENC

Analyzing Options for Airborne Emergency Wireless Communications

In the event of large-scale natural or manmade catastrophic events, access to reliable and enduring commercial communication systems is critical. Hurricane Katrina provided a recent example of the need to ensure communications during a national emergency. To ensure that communication demands are met during these critical times, Idaho National Laboratory (INL) under the guidance of United States Strategic Command has studied infrastructure issues, concerns, and vulnerabilities associated with an airborne wireless communications capability. Such a capability could provide emergency wireless communications until public/commercial nodes can be systematically restored. This report focuses on the airborne cellular restoration concept; analyzing basic infrastructure requirements; identifying related infrastructure issues, concerns, and vulnerabilities and offers recommended solutions