The Game of War: Military Simulation and Game Development Jennifer Sandercock Michael Papasimeon

Air Operations Division, DSTO Conduct research into air operations to help the Australian Defence Force (usually the Royal Australian Air Force) Make smart acquisition decisions on new systems Make best use of existing systems (tactically, operationally etc.) Military Simulation is one of our primary tools. Defence Science and Technology Organisation Department of Defence

Scope and Purpose Raise awareness of Australian military simulation activities amongst Australian game developers. Raise awareness of Defence simulation activity in Melbourne. Explore the potential for future collaboration. Focus on particular areas, will not be exhaustive.

Games and Military Simulations Similarities Technology Software Design Construction (Software Engineering) Some common skill sets. Differences Purpose Emphasis Funding Social

Purpose of Military Simulation

Example Simulations Human In The Loop Flight Simulators (e.g. AOSC Dome) Training Human Factors Constructive and Wargaming Operational Analysis for Acquisition, Tactics Development, Concepts of Operations Experimentation Campaign Strategic Sortie Generation Force-Element Mix

Military Experimentation for AEW&C

Types of Simulation Operational Tactical Strategic km 2, entities, days- months km 2, entities, hours < 10 2 km 2, 2-4 entities, minutes 1 entity

A Flavour Military Simulation in DSTO F/A-18 Air Combat (“Top Gun”) SWARMM and XCombat AEW&C Acquisition Air Operations Simulation Centre (AOSC) Dome Synthetic Environment Research Facility (SERF)

Tactics for F/A-18 Hornets

F/A-18 Fighter Pilot AI

Example: Cognitive Modelling (AI) Ingelligent Agents Situational Awareness The BDI Reasoning Model BDI Languages dMARS JACK Graphical Representation The Melbourne Link

BDI Agent Mechanisation How toperceive act communicate tactics etc.. Plan.. Plan C Plan B Plan A Plan Library Observe External Information Orient Current beliefs Plan selection Plan.. Plan n Plan y Plan x ‘To do’ list Prioritisation Decide Act Plan execution External Action

Pilot Agent Architecture and Cognitive Model Situation Awareness Situation Assessment Tactics Selection Standard Operating Procedures Data from the environment Actions Pre-briefed (mission) data Computational representation of the OODA Loop

Agent Architecture (detail) Situation Assessment Tactics Nomination (reaction) Situation Management Future Assessment Situation Memory Situation Prediction Situation Awareness Tactics Management Future Tactics Nomination (Planning) Implement Tactic Present / ReactiveFuture / ProactiveBalancing & Management

Distributed Simulation Distributed Mission Training Example: The Virtual Air Environment DIS/HLA Standards Interoperability between simulators that were not originally designed to work together.

Some things military simulations have… Artificial Intelligence and Agent Technology Simulation Architectures and Design Patterns Complexity Sophisticated Distribution Credibility and IV&V Standardisation Complex Analysis and Scenario Setup Tools Commercial heavy duty software engineering

Some things games have… Cool and easy to use user-interfaces

Some things games have… Cutting Edge Graphics and Visualisation

Some things games have… Cutting Edge Sound

Human Chess Players Human Playing Against Robotic Chess Simulator Human Playing Against Chess Computer Chess Playing Agent Versus another simulated Chess Playing Agent Chess: Real, Virtual and Mixed

Real Crew in Real AP-3C Real Crew in AP-3C SimulatorVirtual Crew in OR Simulator Real Crew in AP-3C Tactical Simulator AP-3C Maritime Patrol: Real, Virtual and Mixed

Classifying Games Methods: Genre Complexity Number of Entities Number of Interactions Time scale (minutes vs. hours vs. days) Levels AI Graphics

Complexity? Sim City The Sims Unreal Tournament 2004 Pinball Civilization Grand Turismo

Getting Games to Play with Military Simulations Should be able to: Be validated Plug & play for models Control game/simulation time Run for extended periods of simulation time Have access to API documentation Modify look & feel of game

Current Active and Relevant Research Representing teams and team tactics Mixing teams of virtual and real military operators Representing virtual environments for agents and other A.I Emotion Moderators in Agents Strategy and Tempo of War Speech Recognition for Controlling Agents

Existing Cooperation United States Full Spectrum Warrior & Full Spectrum Command (ICT, US Army, Pandemic, Quicksilver) America’s Army (MOVES Institute, US Navy) Australia Turing Tests of FPS games (DSTO) Modifying FPS for Army soldiers (ADFA)

Opportunities for Interactions Conferences Local: AGDC, SimTecT, International: GDC, IJCAI, AAMAS, OzCogSci Books and Magazines Game Developer, Gems Series, AI Wisdom, AI Magazine, IEEE, ACM Associations IGDA (Melbourne Chapter), Agents-VIC

Groups to Interact With Academia Agents – The University of Melbourne, RMIT Government and Defence Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) Local Technology Companies Agent Oriented Software (AOS) Agentis

Questions?