Getting One of the Basics Right for Distributed Simulations: A Mobility Service/Server for the Present and Future

Abstract

As computer hardware and models improve and the use of computer models and simulations (M&S) escalates, users subsequently demand more realism and, thus, fidelity requirements tend to increase. Many standalone, high fidelity, engineering level models have been developed, accepted, and repeatedly used in analysis and studies by the Department of Defense. For example, in the area of ground movement, the NATO Reference Mobility Model (NRMM) is the Army Model and Simulation Office (AMSO) standard for single vehicle ground movement representation. While representation of ground vehicle mobility in both entity- and aggregate-level M&S has typically been simplified, many of the speed limiters incorporated in NRMM are ignored. Developing M&S such as COMBATXXI and OneSAF Objective System (OOS) have functional and operational requirements to portray mobility at a higher fidelity. This paper describes the development of an NRMM-based Standard Mobility Application Programming Interface as a means of readily achieving higher-fidelity movement representation by incorporating terrain-limited speeds into M&S. The Standard Mobility API was written in Java and utilized Extensible Markup Language (XML) for database structures. The API design concept encompassed a range of M&S; this paper will focus on the tactical/entity-level implementation. The US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) and the US Army TRADOC Analysis Center – White Sands Missile Range (TRAC) collaborated on the API development and integration into COMBATXXI as a testbed. By providing a standard interface for applications, this work helps reduce the proliferation of differing mobility models, provides access to standard speed prediction algorithms, and promotes reuse/consistency.