A Java Agent Environment for Simulation and Modelling

The Air Operations Division of DSTO conducts operational analysis studies to help the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to select the most cost effective air platforms and related systems for Australian requirements and to optimise the use of equipment in service. Computer simulation studies are central to this activity. Intelligent software agents are used to represent human decision making within these simulations. The Java programming language is increasingly widely used. Java has some attractive features for simulation studies, notably inherent code modularity, computer platform independence, and speed of execution. In this paper, software agents are developed in Java and applied to a computer-modelling scenario that is relevant to AOD’s activities in operational analysis. The features and behaviour of the Java agent system developed are described. The Java agents used for the evaluation were developed in a beta-release of the JACK software environment. A simplified air combat scenario was chosen to ensure the ability to comprehensively test the features of the agent implementations. Java agents were used to represent the world (everything but the fighters), and each of the fighter aircraft. The world agent stored and distributed information describing each of the fighters, while the fighter aircraft agents employed team tactics and behaviour and had the overall goal of intercepting the opposition fighters. Areas of particular interest were the method of representation of the agents implemented by JACK, and the methods used to display the reasoning process used by the agents during the simulation. The evaluation demonstrated the advantages of the inherent modularity of JACK agents. These advantages included a readily understandable high-level code structure and a high degree of potential code reuse when considering expansion of the functionality of the application. The Java base also allowed for the code to be effortlessly compiled and run on a number of platforms. † JACK Intelligent AgentsTM is developed by Agent Oriented Software Pty. Ltd. A free evaluation copy of JACK can be obtained from their web site at http://www.agent-software.com.au.