Abstract
There has been a strong need for simulation environments that are capable of modeling deep interdependencies between complex systems encountered during natural hazards, such as the interactions and coupled effects between civil infrastructure systems response, human behavior, and social policies, for improved community resilience. Coupling such complex components with an integrated simulation requires continuous data exchange between different simulators simulating separate models during the entire simulation process. This can be implemented by means of distributed simulation platforms or data passing tools. In order to provide a systematic reference for simulation tool choice and facilitating the development of compatible distributed simulators for deep interdependent study in the context of natural hazards, this article focuses on generic tools suitable for integration of simulators from different fields but not the platforms that are mainly used in some specific fields. With this aim, the article provides a comprehensive review of the most commonly used generic distributed simulation platforms (Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS), High Level Architecture (HLA), Test and Training Enabling Architecture (TENA), and Distributed Data Services (DDS)) and data passing tools (Robot Operation System (ROS) and Lightweight Communication and Marshalling (LCM)) and compares their advantages and disadvantages. Three specific limitations in existing platforms are identified from the perspective of natural hazard simulation. For mitigating the identified limitations, two platform design recommendations are provided, namely message exchange wrappers and hybrid communication, to help improve data passing capabilities in existing solutions and provide some guidance for the design of a new domain-specific distributed simulation framework.
Highlights
As in many other fields, numerical simulation models in the natural hazards research area have primarily evolved along separate disciplines
In order to provide a systematic reference for simulation tool choice and facilitating the development of compatible distributed simulators for deep interdependent study in the context of natural hazards, this article focuses on generic tools suitable for integration of simulators from different fields but not the platforms that are mainly used in some specific fields
In order to facilitate the development of compatible domain simulators and the large-scale simulation incorporating deep interdependencies between multiple simulators, this article surveys the main existing generic distributed simulation platforms (DIS, High Level Architecture (HLA), Training Enabling Architecture (TENA), and Distributed Data Services (DDS)) and data passing tools (ROS and Lightweight Communication and Marshalling (LCM)) that are critical for interdependent study in natural hazards engineering
Summary
As in many other fields, numerical simulation models in the natural hazards research area have primarily evolved along separate disciplines. In order to facilitate the development of compatible domain simulators and the large-scale simulation incorporating deep interdependencies between multiple simulators, this article surveys the main existing generic distributed simulation platforms (DIS, HLA, TENA, and DDS) and data passing tools (ROS and LCM) that are critical for interdependent study in natural hazards engineering. These simulation tools can benefit various simulations in civil engineering (Kamat and Martinez 2002; Azar and Menassa 2010; Dong and Kamat 2010) by expanding the simulation scale and increasing simulation resolution. Based on a synthesis of the gathered information, two platform design recommendations are provided, namely message exchange wrappers and hybrid communication, to help further improve data passing capabilities in existing solutions and provide some guidance for the design of a new simulation framework
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