Truly enabling model reuse and development continues to be a challenge across the US Department of Defense. The US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center (DEVCOM SC) has embarked on a research effort to: 1) further the state-of-the-art in capturing model definitions in a model-developer user friendly manner; while, 2) future-proofing by creating the capability to code generate into any simulation environment. The resultant Generative Programming research project consists of three major thrusts: the authoring of models, the domain specific language (DSL) to capture the model, and the code generation of a model into executable simulation software. As part of the technology maturation process, numerous physical models have been represented and subsequently code generated to numerous simulation systems demonstrating the capability. As the research scope expands, the effort has embarked on behavior modeling and code generation of M&S as a Service (MSaaS) implementations to further prove out the technology.
This paper details emerging results from this Generative Programming research project. These results included several areas to improve model authoring, including real-time validation and error checking, and batch refresh of imported models. Other results included updates to the generation capability, including the generation of MSaaS applications and web-enabled services. Finally, the project tackled challenges through research into exploring DSL enhancements into how behavior representations can be defined, and code generated to support a variety of simulations. From these results, the paper details several valuable lessons identified for model authoring with respect to the real-time testing and debugging of models, as well as the need for a platform that better supports model language experimentation in order to incorporate behavioral models. Ultimately, we offer a glimpse into the future of model reuse for military simulation by taking advantage of the latest advances in computer science to further the art of simulation.
Keywords
MODELING
Additional Keywords
Modeling and Simulation as a Service, Generative Programming, Domain Specific Language, Model Reuse