Coalition Agents eXperiment - The Coalition TIE

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

• Aims and Contributions
• Demonstration
• Next Steps and 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

• To address unique aspects of coalition operations
  through the development and evaluation of
• agent domain management services
• agent task, process and event management services
• Aim will be met through delivery of
• Phased technical demonstrations of increasing
  complexity
• Connection of a variety of diverse agent systems
• 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, process
  event management
• Need for rapid formation, management and change
  of agent relationships

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CoAX Components
Agent Frameworks KAoS Agents (Boeing,
IHMC) NOMADS Mobile Agents (IHMC) EMAA/CAST
Agents (LM-ATL) DAgents (Dartmouth) eGents (OBJS)
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Agent Domain Management in CoAX

• Broadens typical distributed security concerns to
  include
• Access management Who can access what services?
• Registration management Who can join the domain
  under what circumstances?
• Resource management Who can have which kind and
  how much of a given computing resource?
• Mobility management What constraints should be
  placed on mobile code?
• Communication management What constraints govern
  interaction between conversing agents?
• Obligation management Are agents meeting their
  commitments?

Initial capability shown in 9-month demo Initial
Capability slated for 18-month demo Initial
capability slated for 30-month demo
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Task, Process, and Event Management in CoAX

• Initially maintains an overview of the current
  status of the coalition C2 processes in
  accessible shared military terms.
• Can take on and address issues in the C2
  process.
• Later adds the ability to monitor, plan and
  control the coalition C2 processes and deal with
  events arising from execution.
• Links to and assists with domain management,
  authority, exception management and other Grid
  management services.
• To be packaged as generic task and process
  management facilities that can be made available
  to other Grid applications.

Initial capability shown in 9-month demo Initial
Capability slated for 18-month demo Initial
capability slated for 30-month demo
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Demo Overview

• Focus on information-gathering phase of a
  Coalition Operation
• First interoperation of agent-wrapped legacy and
  existing US and UK systems
  (AFRL/BBN/GITI CAMPS and DERA MBP)
• Agents and domains
• 6 agent domains and 25 agents
• USC/ISI Ariadne agent providing
  publicly-available weather info
• Initial AIAI Process Panel
• Domain management functionality
• Malicious observer agent thwarted by IHMC KAoS
  domain management and NOMADS resource control
  mechanisms
• IHMC KAoS Policy Administration Tool (KPAT)
  administering communication, registration, and
  resource policies
• Stand-alone demonstrations
• MIT exception handling
• U. Michigan plan deconfliction
• Dartmouth observer agents
• OBJS eGents

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Briefing Outline

• Aims and Contributions
• Demonstration
• Next Steps and Summary

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Coalition Domain Types
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Current DemoAgents and Domains
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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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Forces separated by Firestorm
Cape Amstado
Kaso Lagoon
GAO
Jacal
Caca
LAKE CACA
Daka
Binni
Gao forces
Mawli
Amisa
White Caca
Afram
Pra
FIRESTORM
Ofin
Kapowa
Agadez forces
Cape Vincent
Ankobra
Tana
Black Caca
AGADEZ
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GRAND STRATEGIC MILITARY STRATEGIC OPERATI
ONAL TACTICAL
GOVERNMENTS
UN
OGDs
HOME BASE
NGOs
THEATRE
US
JTFC
JOINT TASK FORCE HQ (JTF HQ) Staffs J1 - 9
Nat'l Reps
Joint Task Force Commander
Other Components LOGISTICS, MARINES, SF etc
GAO
JFACC
JFLCC
JFMCC
Nat'l Pers- onnel
Nat'l Pers- onnel
Nat'l Pers- onnel
Binni Coalition - C2 Structure and Commanders'
Responsibilities
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Binni
To Cecil
Red Sea
GAO
To Segumbo
To Pample
To Tifillo
To Cunmege
Akwapim-Gao Range
CACA REGION
Gambaga Escarpment
CACA REGION
NORTHERN REGION
BANDAR REGION
Gao forces
Atewa Ranga
Kwahu Plateau
WESTERN REGION
ASHANTI REGION
Zingato
CENTRAL REGION
Laki Safari Park
Agadez Forces
AGADEZ
FIRESTORM
UPPER REGION
Caca Gorge
EASTERN REGION
False Agadez forces
To Falo
AGADEZ
To Harra
To Petit Paris
To Escallope
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Observers Domain Structure
MM
DAO
DM
GAO
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Briefing Outline

• Aims and Contributions
• Demonstration
• Next Steps and Summary

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CoAX Demo Emphasis
More Linear
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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 provide additional robustness and
  responsiveness
• Added functionality in process and task
  management
• Increased scope of Binni scenario demonstration
• Richer information gathering phase
• Extend scope to execution phase with agent
  systems responding dynamically to events
• Incorporating coalition functionality becomes
  easier
• Package selected domain management functionality
  as KAoS grid helper

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18-Month (July 2001) Demo Structure
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30-Month (July 2002) Demonstration Plan

• Dynamic come as you are coalition formation
• Dynamic creation of virtual coalition
  organization
• Agents and domains added to coalition structure
  on-the-fly
• Dynamic coalition tasks and processes
• Tailored visualizations
• Tools to improve human / software agent
  interaction
• High-level tools usable without specialized
  training
• Packaged task, process, and event management
  capabilities as generic Grid services

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CoAX Message

• Operational Message
• Interoperability of different nations systems
• Agility and robustness
• Support to coalition and virtual organizations
• Technical Message
• Agents as an appropriate paradigm to facilitate
  interoperability of disparate systems
• Middleware of CoABS Grid is valuable for rapid
  configuration
• Utility of domain management and task/process
  management services

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Further Information and Involvement

• CoAX and Binni documentation available
• 100 page living document describing CoAX
  contributions and Binni FLASH scenario
• http//www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/coax/
• We encourage further participation
• In addressing key coalition and technical drivers
  
• In seeking operational opportunities
• In seeking inter-program links
• In future demonstrations

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Spare Slides

• Demonstration Schedule
• Coalition domains slide with final overlay to
  show the way in which a single person might span
  a variety of organizational, country and
  functional domains
• Further summarization slide

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Demonstration Schedule

• 1-month demo in February 2000 showing direct
  connection between DERA MBP and LM-ATL AODB
• 9-month demo in October 2000
• Brief the CoAX TIE and Binni scenario
• Show integration of selected CoAX components
• Show that selected components interoperate in a
  Binni-based scenario
• Tell a relevant story about agents for
  information gathering phase
• Additional stand-alone demos of other components
• 18-month demo in July 2001 showing full
  integration of CoAX components in a rich
  coalition scenario
• Expanded scope to cover execution phase
• Focal point to engage other nations and research
  teams
• 30-month demo in July 2002 showing dynamic
  aspects of domain management and tasking

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Coalition Domain Types
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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
• Seventeen partners cooperating in phased
  technical integration demonstrators
• CoABS Grid provided necessary interoperability
• Significant new research issues being addressed
  of both theoretical and practical significance