Creating Spatially-Shaped Defense Models Using DEVS and Cell-DEVS

Abstract

In recent years, new techniques for military modeling and simulation provided the practitioner with advanced mechanisms to describe complex applications. Some of the recent efforts in the field tried to address important issues in open research areas, ranging from agent-based modeling, multiresolution/hierarchical models, hybrid models, and composability. We show how to address some of these issues through the application of a formal modeling and simulation technique and its application to the domain of defense applications. Our efforts consider the construction of multimodels, including components that can be defined as spatially-shaped models, using the Cell-DEVS and DEVS formalisms. DEVS is a mathematically sound framework in which a system is modeled by dividing it into a number of components (each of them having a discrete state and interacting with the environment via input/output ports). Cell-DEVS is an extension to DEVS that formulates the execution of cellular models with explicit timing delays. We show how these concepts can be applied to different defense-related spatial models, including a radar transmitter/receiver, a target-seeking device, and land battlefield models.