The Department of Defense (DoD)’s Science & Technology (S&T) priority for Engineered Resilient Systems (ERS) calls for adaptable designs with diverse system models that can easily be modified and re-used, the ability to iterate designs quickly and a clear linkage to mission needs. Towards this end, tradespace analysis is of great importance. The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) has been developing web-based, collaborative modeling and simulation tools that use a Model-Based Systems Engineering approach to address the analysis of alternatives for acquisition programs to assess cost, schedule and performance risk; of particular note is the United States Marines Corps (USMC) funded Framework for Assessing Cost and Technology (FACT). In parallel, the United States (U.S.) Army Research Laboratory (ARL) has been pursuing the Executable Architecture Systems Engineering (EASE) research project, which links analytical, experimental and training objectives with the technical complexity of modeling and simulation in an easy to use, scalable tool. This paper details an effort to develop a formal Application Programming Interface (API) between FACT and EASE, which creates the ability to develop system concepts and assess Measures of Performance (in FACT), and then send those system concepts to a combat simulation to assess Measures of Effectiveness (through EASE), and finally back to FACT for a high-level trade study. It further describes a proof-of-concept demonstration using a Force Protection use case that allows a user to tune parameters of detection on an unmanned platform that is then simulated in an operational scenario to collect performance data. This effort effectively lays the framework for future simulation-enabled tradespace analysis that will be a pillar of ERS and can be adapted by other simulation efforts.
When Tradespace Analysis Met Combat Modeling and Simulation
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