Coalition Agents eXperiment - The Coalition TIE

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CoAX Coalition TIE Technology Integration
Experiment TTCP Meeting - Malvern - September
2000 AFRL Rome, AIAI, Boeing, Dartmouth, DERA
Malvern, Lockheed Martin ATL, Michigan, MIT
Sloan, Stanford, USC/ISI, UWF/IHMC Support from
BBN, GITI, ISX, MITRE, Schafer Coalition Agents
eXperiment (CoAX) http//www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project
/coax/
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Briefing Outline

• Aims and Scenario
• CoAX Components
• Demonstrations
• TTCP Demonstration
• Next Steps
• Summary

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Context

• Increasing military requirements for coalition
  operations
• Belief that agent computational model is a good
  fit to meet coalition interoperability
  requirements
• US and UK Agent Research Programmes
• US DARPA Control of Agent Based Systems (CoABS)
• UK DERA Agents Project
• Need for middleware such as is provided by
  CoABS Grid Infrastructure

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Aim of Coalition TIE

• Aim is to address unique aspects of coalition
  operations through the development and evaluation
  of agent domain and task management services
• Aim will be met through delivery of
• Phased technical demonstrations of increasing
  complexity
• Development of generic Coalition-oriented grid
  services
• Requirements
• Use of a wide variety of different agent systems
• Use of existing military (non-agent) applications

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Key Coalition Drivers

• Different cultures, doctrines, and languages
• Different doctrine, decision making, rules of
  engagement and, in general, mission agendas
• Command authorities - agreement and transfers
• Different interpretation of situational
  information
• Incompatibility of respective national
  information systems
• Different technology skill and equipment levels
• Lack of information systems resource sharing
  agreements
• Variable reliability of components and
  infrastructures
• Lack of compatible security architectures
• Need for rapid configuration and reconfiguration
  by personnel with limited training
• Limited models for coalition force operations

Derived from LeRoy Pearce (Canadian MOD), 1999
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Key Technical Drivers

• Cannot assume interoperability, reliability or
  availability of different nations systems
• Need for partial (secure) sharing and
  visualization of processes, data and facilities
• Need to work with agents in multiple dynamically
  determined domains
• Need for flexible inter-agent task and process
  management
• Need for rapid formation, management and change
  of agent relationships

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Binni - Gateway to theGolden Bowl of Africa
Rathmell, R.A. (1999) A Coalition Force Scenario
'Binni - Gateway to the Golden Bowl of Africa',
in Proceedings of the International Workshop on
Knowledge-Based Planning for Coalition
Forces, (ed. Tate, A.) pp. 115-125, Edinburgh,
Scotland, 10th-11th May 1999.
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Binni - All Features
LAYERS
Setting
Geography
Transport
Water
Names
Lat / Long
Return
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(No Transcript)
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Gao deception is intended to displace
firestorm separation fails.
Gao forces
False Gao forces
Agadez forces
Firestorm
False Agadez forces
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Briefing Outline

• Aims and Scenario
• CoAX Components
• Demonstrations
• TTCP Demonstration
• Next Steps
• Summary

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CoAX Components
Agent Frameworks KAoS Agents (Boeing,
IHMC) DAgents (Dartmouth) EMAA/CAST Agents (LM
ATL)
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Briefing Outline

• Aims and Scenario
• CoAX Components
• Demonstrations
• TTCP Demonstration
• Next Steps
• Summary

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Demonstration Schedule

• 1-month demo at kick-off in February 2000 showing
  direct connection between DERA MBP and LM-ATL
  AODB
• 6-month integration milestone in July 2000
  showing initial integration of selected CoAX
  components for 9-month demo
• 9-month demo in October 2000
• Brief the CoAX TIE and Binni scenario
• Show full integration of selected CoAX components
• Show that selected components interoperate in a
  Binni-based scenario
• Tell a relevant 'story about agents for
  information gathering
• Additional stand-alone demos of other components
• 18-month demo in July 2001 showing full
  integration of all CoAX components in a rich
  coalition scenario
• Expanding scope to cover planning and execution
• 30-month demo in July 2002 showing dynamic
  aspects of domain management and tasking

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Month 1 - Initial Demo

• Demonstration involves AFRL Rome, DERA Malvern
  and LM ATL and is a first (risk reduction) step
  toward CoAX
• Demo shows legacy applications can be usefully
  integrated into an agent framework

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6-Month (July 2000) Milestone Report

• Eleven agents in three separate agent domains
  representing coalition functional units (JTF HQ,
  JFAC HQ, Gao Intel)
• Binni scenario information used to drive
  storyboard
• Tasking and control across coalition functional
  units
• Visualization of coalition C2 process via a
  simple process model
• Simple policy administration tool for selective
  information sharing and communication blocking

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6-Month (July 2000)Milestone Structure
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9-Month (October 2000) Demonstration Plan

• Focus on information-gathering phase
• First interoperation of agent-wrapped legacy US
  and UK systems
• New agents and domains
• Three additional agent domains (6 domains and 25
  agents)
• Incorporation of domain-aware CAMPS airlift
  planning system
• Ariadne agent providing publicly available
  weather information
• More powerful Process Panel
• New domain management functionality
• Malicious observer agent thwarted by domain
  management and NOMADS resource control mechanisms
• KAoS Policy Administration Tool (KPAT)
  administering communication, registration, and
  resource policies
• New stand-alone demonstrations
• MIT exception handling
• Stanford incentive management
• U. Michigan plan deconfliction
• Dartmouth observer agents

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9-Month (October 2000) Demonstration Structure
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Briefing Outline

• Aims and Scenario
• CoAX Components
• Demonstrations
• TTCP Demonstration
• Next Steps
• Summary

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Briefing Outline

• Aims and Scenario
• CoAX Components
• Demonstrations
• TTCP Demonstration
• Next Steps
• Summary

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18-Month (July 2001) Demonstration Plan

• More realism in coalition structures
• All CoAX members integrated (9 domains and 35
  agents)
• Coalition agents playing multiple roles in
  different domains
• New policies add additional robustness and
  security
• Added functionality in process and task
  management
• Increased scope of Binni scenario demonstration
• Richer information gathering phase
• Planning and execution phases of Binni added in
• Incorporating coalition functionality becomes
  easier
• Packaging capabilities as pluggable grid services

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18-Month (July 2000) Demo Structure
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30-Month (July 2002) Demonstration Plan

• Dynamic come as you are coalition formation
• Dynamic creation of virtual coalition
  organisation
• Agents and domains added to coalition structure
  on-the-fly
• Dynamic coalition tasks and processes
• Tailored visualizations
• High-level tools usable without specialized
  training
• Generic task, process, and domain management tools

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Briefing Outline

• Aims and Scenario
• CoAX Components
• Demonstrations
• TTCP Demonstration
• Next Steps
• Summary

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Status andNext Steps

• 1-month and 6-month demo milestones successfully
  completed
• Preview of progress on 9-month demonstration at
  Malvern TTCP meeting
• 100 page living document describing CoAX
  contributions and Binni FLASH scenario
  delivered
• Ongoing work with GITI on design for packaging of
  agent domain and process management services for
  the grid
• 9-month demonstration ready in October 2000
• Integrated demonstration
• Stand-alone demonstrations
• Links to Joint Battlespace Infosphere, Joint
  Battlespace Digitisation

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Summary

• Coalition operations is a matter of high concern
  for the military and a great proving ground for
  agent research
• Binni provides mature rich source of realistic
  scenario data
• Actual military tools used in true cross-national
  collaborationhope to expand to additional
  nations in the future
• Sixteen partners cooperating in phased technical
  integration demonstrators
• CoABS Grid provided necessary interoperability
• Significant new research issues being addressed
  of both theoretical and practical significance

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Further Information and Involvement

• CoAX and Binni documentation available
• See http//www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/coax/
• We encourage your participation
• In addressing key coalition and technical drivers
  
• In seeking operational opportunities
• In future demonstrations

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The End