Design of An Agent-Based Logistics Simulation Tool

The military logistics community requires a scalable, high fidelity simulation capability for modeling the detailed, dynamic, logistics activities of a distributed military organization. Furthermore, such detailed logistics simulations could be coupled with existing combat simulations to understand better the impact of logistics activities upon combat operations. BBN is developing a scalable, agent-based modeling system that represents the logistics activities of the Army’s Future Combat Systems’ (FCS) Unit of Action (UA). This system is designed to either operate in a standalone mode or interoperate with combat simulation models using interoperability infrastructures such as HLA. This paper describes how the prototype FCS Supportability Analysis Tool uses a Cougaar-based agent society to represent all of the organizations and vehicles (both combat and support) contained in the FCS UA. It describes how Cougaar’s plugin components provide detailed domain behavior for the agents, to comprise a detailed model of the consumption, supply, and distribution processes within this military organization. The paper also describes how the same agent-based implementation can be used in both a standalone mode for logistics planning and evaluation, and in collaboration with combat-simulation models. These capabilities will result in logistics modeling that is responsive to detailed operational events.