Military Simulation Research Articles

Configuring the Other: Sensing War through Immersive Simulation

This paper draws on archival materials to read two demonstrations of FlatWorld, an immersive military training simulation developed between 2001 and 2007 at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies. The first demonstration is a video recording of a guided tour of the system, staged by its designers in 2005. The second is a documentary created by the US Public Broadcasting Service as part of their “embedded” media coverage of the system while it was installed at California’s Camp Pendleton in 2007. I critically attend to the imaginaries that are realized in the simulation’s figurations of places and (raced, gendered) bodies, as well as its storylines. This is part of a wider project of understanding how distinctions between the real and the virtual are effectively elided in technoscientific military discourses, in the interest of recognizing real/virtual entanglements while also reclaiming the differences that matter.

The Way Forward for Simulation & Gaming (S&G)

The fields of simulation and gaming are expanding into innovative and increasingly popular areas, including simulation in healthcare, recreational games for educational purposes, urban planning, military simulation and modeling, and more. This editorial serves as a farewell to a distinguished editor of Simulation & Gaming (S&G) and an introduction of the new editors who will maintain the highest standards for the journal and guide it to newer domains, while unveiling best-practices in underreported areas of the world.

Multi-Class Simultaneous Adaptive Segmentation and Quality Control of Point Cloud Data

3D modeling of a given site is an important activity for a wide range of applications including urban planning, as-built mapping of industrial sites, heritage documentation, military simulation, and outdoor/indoor analysis of airflow. Point clouds, which could be either derived from passive or active imaging systems, are an important source for 3D modeling. Such point clouds need to undergo a sequence of data processing steps to derive the necessary information for the 3D modeling process. Segmentation is usually the first step in the data processing chain. This paper presents a region-growing multi-class simultaneous segmentation procedure, where planar, pole-like, and rough regions are identified while considering the internal characteristics (i.e., local point density/spacing and noise level) of the point cloud in question. The segmentation starts with point cloud organization into a kd-tree data structure and characterization process to estimate the local point density/spacing. Then, proceeding from randomly-distributed seed points, a set of seed regions is derived through distance-based region growing, which is followed by modeling of such seed regions into planar and pole-like features. Starting from optimally-selected seed regions, planar and pole-like features are then segmented. The paper also introduces a list of hypothesized artifacts/problems that might take place during the region-growing process. Finally, a quality control process is devised to detect, quantify, and mitigate instances of partially/fully misclassified planar and pole-like features. Experimental results from airborne and terrestrial laser scanning as well as image-based point clouds are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed segmentation and quality control framework.

Analysing the resilience of military supply network and simulation against disruptions

In this paper, we study the effectiveness of military supply systems in complex and uncertain environment from the perspective of complex network topologies. Our goal is to provide insights on how to explore military supply networks and analyse the networks' resilience against different disruptions. We first propose an analysis process of the resilience for military supply networks. Then, we present two military supply growth models - key units priority (KUP) growth model and cost minimisation priority (CMP) growth model based on real military supply activities, which can be used to generate two military supply networks. We also present a new taxonomy of resilience metrics for military supply networks. Through computer simulation, we find that KUP supply network has poorer resilience against targeted disruptions but higher supply efficiency compared with other networks. While the connectivity of demand nodes in CMP supply network has better adaptability, it is of lower supply efficiency against both random and targeted disruptions. Through analysis, we can provide decision-makers with references when they choose supply patterns and deploy logistics defence forces.

재사용 가능한 시뮬레이션 시나리오 프레임워크 개발

국방 M&S 분야에서 모의 기반 획득 방법이 필수적인 정책으로 인식되면서 M&S 관련 프레임워크 및 솔루션들이 개발되어 현업에 적용되고 있다. 이러한 프레임워크나 솔루션을 기반으로 개발되는 시뮬레이션 시스템은 공통적으로 통제부, 시나리오 생성부, 모의부로 나눌 수 있고 각 파트가 수행하는 기능은 시뮬레이션 시스템에 관계 없이 유사하다. 그럼에도 불구하고 시뮬레이션 시스템마다 각기 다른 시뮬레이션 생성 기능을 구현함으로써 시스템 개발 비용이 증가하는 문제를 겪고 있다. 이러한 문제를 해결하기 위하여 목적 시뮬레이션 시스템의 모의 내용과 관계 없이 재사용이 가능한 시뮬레이션 시나리오 프레임워크를 개발하였으며 이를 통해 다양한 시뮬레이션 시스템을 효과적으로 개발할 수 있었다. 본 연구에서는 QUEST를 기반으로 하여 모의 모델에 관계없이 재사용 가능한 시뮬레이션 시나리오 프레임워크의 구조와 기능 요소들에 대해 설명한다. Since SBA is regarded as mandatory for DM&S, many M&S frameworks and solutions were developed and applied to military simulation systems. Simulation systems developed based on such framework or solution are consist of simulation control part, scenario generation part and modeling part in common. Although the functions of these parts are similar between another simulation systems, these are developed separately by different implementation, so it causes increase of development cost. In order to solve these problems, we developed a simulation scenario framework which can be reusable regardless of simulation purpose. In this paper, we propose an architecture of simulation scenario framework and its functions.

Playing for Fun, Training for War

In the cultural controversy surrounding “violent video games,” the manufacturers and players of games often insist that computer games are a form of harmless entertainment that is unlikely to influence the real-world activities of players. Yet games and military simulations are used by military organizations across the world to teach the modern arts of war, from how to shoot a gun to teamwork, leadership skills, military values, and cultural sensitivity. We survey a number of ways of reconciling these apparently contradictory claims and argue that none of them are ultimately successful. Thus, either military organizations are wrong to think that games and simulations have a useful role to play in training anything other than the most narrowly circumscribed physical skills or some recreational digital games do, in fact, have the power to influence the real-world behavior and dispositions of players in morally significant ways.

An architecture to facilitate interoperability of Discrete Event System Specification and Coalition Battle Management Language simulation models

The Joint Command, Control and Communications Information Exchange Data Model, Coalition Battle Management Language and Military Scenario Definition Language define formatted schemas that have been developed for use in military simulations. The Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) is used to create models whose behavior is defined in response to events in the simulated environment. The RESTful Interoperability Simulation Environment (RISE) provides a web-based interface for executing DEVS models. DEVS models can be used to simulate systems as diverse as natural disasters and traffic patterns. We present an application that uses formatted messaging to interact with a DEVS model running on the RISE server. The purpose of this is to demonstrate that a DEVS model can be executed as part of a larger, web-enabled synthetic environment, such as a military planning exercise.

Video Game Visions of Climate Futures

This article discusses ARMA 3 (2013), a military simulation game from Bohemia Interactive. Through the prominent placement of visual representations of renewable power generation the game offers a compelling vision of the future in which current resistance to low-carbon and renewable economies have been overcome. I argue that the potential of this vision to challenge cultural futures and imaginaries is dependent on its presentation aesthetically and not, as is often suggested, on game mechanics operating in a “persuasive” mode. Instead, I argue that ARMA 3’s aesthetic vision can skirt around the ideological resistances players may have against accepting more didactic modes of engagement with the highly charged and ideologically contested reality of anthropogenic climate change. In this way, I suggest ARMA 3 offers a compelling challenge to current theories about games ability to persuade or influence players.

PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTIC MEMS-BASED IMUs FOR UAVs NAVIGATION

Abstract. Accurate 3D reconstruction has become essential for non-traditional mapping applications such as urban planning, mining industry, environmental monitoring, navigation, surveillance, pipeline inspection, infrastructure monitoring, landslide hazard analysis, indoor localization, and military simulation. The needs of these applications cannot be satisfied by traditional mapping, which is based on dedicated data acquisition systems designed for mapping purposes. Recent advances in hardware and software development have made it possible to conduct accurate 3D mapping without using costly and high-end data acquisition systems. Low-cost digital cameras, laser scanners, and navigation systems can provide accurate mapping if they are properly integrated at the hardware and software levels. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are emerging as a mobile mapping platform that can provide additional economical and practical advantages. However, such economical and practical requirements need navigation systems that can provide uninterrupted navigation solution. Hence, testing the performance characteristics of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) or low cost navigation sensors for various UAV applications is important research. This work focuses on studying the performance characteristics under different manoeuvres using inertial measurements integrated with single point positioning, Real-Time-Kinematic (RTK), and additional navigational aiding sensors. Furthermore, the performance of the inertial sensors is tested during Global Positioning System (GPS) signal outage.

Battlefield tracheal intubation training using virtual simulation: a multi center operational assessment of video laryngoscope technology.

Airway management is an essential skill in providing care in trauma situations. The video laryngoscope is a tool which offers improvement in teaching airway management skills and in managing airways of trauma patients on the far forward battlefield. An Operational Assessment (OA) of videolaryngoscope technology for medical training and airway management was conducted by the Center for Advanced Technology and Telemedicine (at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE) for the US Air Force Modernization Command to validate this technology in the provision of Out of OR airway management and airway management training in military simulation centers. The value for both the training and performance of intubations was highly rated and the majority of respondents indicated interest in having a video laryngoscope in their facility.

Military Simulation Big Data: Background, State of the Art, and Challenges

Big data technology has undergone rapid development and attained great success in the business field. Military simulation (MS) is another application domain producing massive datasets created by high-resolution models and large-scale simulations. It is used to study complicated problems such as weapon systems acquisition, combat analysis, and military training. This paper firstly reviewed several large-scale military simulations producing big data (MS big data) for a variety of usages and summarized the main characteristics of result data. Then we looked at the technical details involving the generation, collection, processing, and analysis of MS big data. Two frameworks were also surveyed to trace the development of the underlying software platform. Finally, we identified some key challenges and proposed a framework as a basis for future work. This framework considered both the simulation and big data management at the same time based on layered and service oriented architectures. The objective of this review is to help interested researchers learn the key points of MS big data and provide references for tackling the big data problem and performing further research.

COMPUTER GAMES AND EDUCATION

This paper devoted to the research of educational resources and possibilities of modern computer games. The “internal” educational aspects of computer games include educational mechanism (a separate or integrated “tutorial”) and representation of a real or even fantastic educational process within virtual worlds. The “external” dimension represents educational opportunities of computer games for personal and professional development in different genres of computer games (various transport, social, business, medical, military simulators and economic, historical strategies). Keywords : Computer games, virtual world, interactive study, tutorial, training, skills, education, simulator, strategy.

BigPicture: An Analytical Platform for Business War Gaming

Business war games are strategic management exercises that bring the military scenario simulation to a commercial setting, helping business managers to better understand the environment in which they operate and anticipate scenarios, such as competition movements, new product launching and production capacity planning, among others. These exercises normally take place with players organized in teams, gathered in a room, with a static package of information provided beforehand. In this paper we present an alternative, dynamic way of playing a business war game, with players geographically dispersed, and information dynamically available as it is available from its sources. We introduce BigPicture, an analytical platform with unique features that allow it to be an ideal “playground” for conducting more realistic business war games.

Adaptive CGFs Based on Grammatical Evolution

Computer generated forces (CGFs) play blue or red units in military simulations for personnel training and weapon systems evaluation. Traditionally, CGFs are controlled through rule-based scripts, despite the doctrine-driven behavior of CGFs being rigid and predictable. Furthermore, CGFs are often tricked by trainees or fail to adapt to new situations (e.g., changes in battle field or update in weapon systems), and, in most cases, the subject matter experts (SMEs) review and redesign a large amount of CGF scripts for new scenarios or training tasks, which is both challenging and time-consuming. In an effort to overcome these limitations and move toward more true-to-life scenarios, a study using grammatical evolution (GE) to generate adaptive CGFs for air combat simulations has been conducted. Expert knowledge is encoded with modular behavior trees (BTs) for compatibility with the operators in genetic algorithm (GA). GE maps CGFs, represented with BTs to binary strings, and uses GA to evolve CGFs with performance feedback from the simulation. Beyond-visual-range air combat experiments between adaptive CGFs and nonadaptive baseline CGFs have been conducted to observe and study this evolutionary process. The experimental results show that the GE is an efficient framework to generate CGFs in BTs formalism and evolve CGFs via GA.

A Novel AHP-Based Benefit Evaluation Model of Military Simulation Training Systems

With the constantly changing patterns of war, more technologically exquisite weapons are designed, increasing in cost and complexity. Training maneuvers with live ammunition are expensive and are prone to accidental casualties. Thus, many countries are gradually adopting simulation training systems to replace some actual exercises to reduce casualties and still maintain maximum combat readiness. However, each simulation training system has a different background with regard to time, source, function goal, and quality of environment and staff. It is also more difficult to assess the benefit of simulation training systems. Moreover, traditional benefit assessments of military simulation training systems have merely considered their efficiency, not safety, causing biased conclusions. To solve these issues, this paper integrates the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), important-performance analysis (IPA), and the 2-tuple fuzzy linguistic representation model to determine the benefits of simulation training systems. To verify the proposed approach, a numerical example of the evaluation of a training simulator system’s benefit is adopted. Compared with the traditional AHP method, the proposed method does not lose any valuable information that is provided by experts and also considers training safety. Further, these data are presented in 2-dimensional graphs for managers to further guide the decision-making process.

Optimal Mission Task Assignment for Complex Military Simulator Operations

In Side-by-Side helicopter system, pilots and co-pilot occupy same place and make a community about instruments. So both pilots have a great interaction and communication compared with tandem helicopter. In our previous research, we found the TSD information is effected on mission conduction greatly. We also realized the new task assignment is required. To compensate for our previous research and find the optimal task assignment in side-by-side helicopter system, we set up the second experiment. We established the scenario and did some experiment. Measuring data is performance total time, killing rate, and pilot & gunner workload data similar to before experiment 1, and this project has a purpose about finding optimal task assignment and researching strong point than Tandem system using 1 & 2 experiment totally.

Combining NEAT and PSO for learning tactical human behavior

This article presents and discusses a machine learning algorithm called PIGEON used to build agents capable of displaying tactical behavior in various domains. Such tactical behavior can be relevant in military simulations and video games, as well as in everyday tasks in the physical world, such as driving an automobile. Furthermore, PIGEON displays good performance across two different approaches to learning (observational and experiential) and across multiple domains. PIGEON is a hybrid algorithm, combining NEAT and PSO in two different manners. The investigation described in this paper compares the performance of the two versions of PIGEON to each other as well as to NEAT and to PSO individually. These four machine learning algorithms are applied in two different approaches to learning--through observation of human performance and through experience, as well as in three distinct domain testbeds. The criteria used to compare them were high proficiency in task completion and rapid learning. Results indicate that overall, PIGEON worked best when NEAT and PSO are applied in an alternating manner. This combination was called PIGEON-Alternate, or simply Alternate. The two versions of the PIGEON algorithm, the tests conducted, the results obtained and the conclusions are described in detail.

Visualization of the Synthetic Environment Data Representation & Interchange Specification data for verifying large-scale synthetic environment data

The need for reusing synthetic environment data that are employed in the field of modeling and simulation has recently been rising. SEDRIS (Synthetic Environment Data Representation & Interchange Specification) is a standard to exchange synthetic environment data, and is the specification utilized in various military simulations of the Pentagon for representing and exchanging three-dimensional data. SEDRIS represents environmental areas based on a data model; it can represent wind speed, wind directions, weather changes, and the information of buildings, as well as terrain data. In some situations, however, the synthetic environment data stored in SEDRIS format should be converted to various visualization formats. Firstly, because SEDRIS is a form of a super-set, it is necessary to verify whether large-scale SEDRIS files are stored successfully through visualization. In addition, the synthetic environment data should be visualized in some visualization programs for the simulation results to provide an immersive and realistic sense. In this study, we suggest several methods for visualizing synthetic environmental data stored in the SEDRIS format. We developed the converters for converting SEDRIS to the several visualization formats and developed the direct visualization programs using an open-source visualization engine. These results allow us to visualize the stored SEDRIS file and to verify whether the saving stage with native data is performed normally or not.

Special issue: novel approaches to defense and military modeling and simulation

Special issue: novel approaches to defense and military modeling and simulation

DEVS-based combat modeling for engagement-level simulation

This paper presents a modeling method to demonstrate engagement-level military simulation which includes few combat objects, or entities. To this end, the paper, on the basis of the discrete event system specification (DEVS) formalism, centers on two ideas: (1) a combat entity’s model structure at the composition level; and (2) behavioral delineation of the entity’s elementary component. In detail, we classify the combat entity model into platform and weapon models and create six groups of the model categorized by two dimensions: three activities and two abstractions. And the elementary component in the group interprets an engagement scenario as a flow of executable tasks, which are expressed by DEVS semantics. The stated structures and semantics provide intuitive appeal, reducing the effort required to read and understand the model’s behavior. From the combat experiments, we can gain interesting experimental results regarding engagement situations employing underwater weapons and their tactical operations. Finally, we expect that this work will serve an immediate application suited to various engagement situations.