DARPA
CoAX – Coalition Agents eXperiment
AIAI, BBN, CMU, Dartmouth, DSTO, GITI,
Lockheed Martin ATL, NRL, Potomac Inst., U.Maryland,
U.Michigan, QinetiQ, UT-Austin, UWF/IHMC
Support from AFRL, ARL, Boeing, DRDC, DSTL, ISX, MITRE,
MIT Sloan, NWDC, OBJS, Schafer, Stanford, TTCP, USC/ISI, USPACOM
http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/coax/
Context


Increasing military requirements for coalition operations
Belief that agent computational model can support:



International Agent Research Programmes





Coalition interoperability requirements
Dynamic and Decentralized C3I
US DARPA Control of Agent Based Systems (CoABS)
UK DSTL/QinetiQ Agents Project
Australian and Canadian Agents and Coalition Work
TTCP C3I Groups for international involvement
Need for “middleware” such as is provided by CoABS
Grid Infrastructure
CoAX/Briefing - 2
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
 Specific agent services
Aim will be met through delivery of:
 Phased technical demonstrations of increasing complexity
 Integration 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
CoAX/Briefing - 3
Demonstration Schedule





1-month demo at kick-off in February 2000 showing direct connection
between DERA MBP and LM ATL AODB
6-month integration milestone in July 2000 showing initial integration of
selected CoAX components for year 2000 demo
CoAX Binni 2000 demo in Fall 2000:
 Briefing the CoAX TIE and Binni scenario
 Showing full integration of selected CoAX components in Binni
 Telling a relevant “story” about agents for information gathering
CoAX Binni 2001 demo in Fall 2001:
 Fully integrating all CoAX components in a rich coalition scenario
 Expanding scope to cover dynamic re-planning
CoAX Binni 2002 demo in Fall 2002:
 Showing dynamic aspects of coalition organization, domain
management, tasking and event handling
 Expanding scope to cover dynamic planning, coordination and
execution.
CoAX/Briefing - 4
LAYERS:
Setting
Transport
Water
Names
Lat / Long
ALL
Geography / Borders
Return
KEY
175 Heights (metres)
Railways
Tarmac roads
BANDAR
Population centres

Military airfields
Gravel roads
Brongo
Ports
Q
Civilian Airfields
Tracks
LAYERS:
Setting
Grandville
Antok
Kaso
To Cunmege
GAO
Anala
Libar
Biloo
Geography
Cape
Amstado
Kaso
Lagoon
Transport
Dado
GambaQ
Minga
Bave CACA
Kolla876
Hakkali REGION
Laval
Zatu
Water
Dinga
Q
Higgville
Q
Masembi
527
Daka
Brongo
Q
Asoba
CACA REGION
Blackman
Tonka
NORTHERN REGION
268
Gambaga
Names
Nanga
Esuko Laponga
SIKASSO
Caca Dam
BANDAR
REGION
788
Bonrope
775
Jinja
Kamongo
Sagiba
Lat / Long
BANDAR
Wonka
Zaribe

Q
UGWULU
Adaido
175
WESTERN REGION
Aida
Achobo
Gonobo
Grandvache
Zingato
Kwanabouri
123
Saltpond
ASHANTI REGION
Libretto
613
Nedalla
Epidurango
CENTRAL REGION
707
Komenda

AGADEZ
St Andrews
Slafito
390
Lissa
Sandosta
Q COSTA DEL
MARIA

Kingtown

588
Sagotown
752
Sellerham
Langford
Bisha
Pra
Donga
Polia
Laki Safari
Park
UPPER REGION
436
Jamestown
LAKI
482
Slabo
Cape
Vincent
Sonara
Suthertown
Salisbury
EASTERN REGION
Wazilla
Belucar
Diplombo
Elmina
Wampimba
Akimbo
542
Anguiba
Kutchi
Deanville
613
Bisa
To Petit Paris
Binni - All Features
AGADEZ
Return
Future Plans





Increasing the ability to work quickly and effectively in nonepisodic cases (e.g., incremental coalition formation)
Distributing MCA services across multiple agents to
improve reliability and scalability
Design and analyze extensions for efficiently discovering
and exploiting synergistic interactions
Experiment on increasingly difficult (Coalition) scenarios
Transition: CoAX, STRATCOM?, NASA-JPL
CoAX/Briefing - 7
CoAX Binni 2002
Demonstration

Dynamic “come as you are” coalition formation







Tailored visualizations / interface agents
Tools to improve human / software agent interaction
High-level tools usable without specialized training
Packaged generic Grid services:



Dynamic creation of ‘virtual coalition organization’
Agents and domains added to coalition structure ‘on-the-fly’
Dynamic coalition tasks and processes
Domain management and DAML-based policy analysis
Task, process, and event management
Involvement of more countries and organizations




CoAX/Briefing - 8
USA – BBN – Mixed initiative agents & dynamic information flow
USA – CMU – Agent Organization and Interaction Visualization
USA – NRL, UMD, UTexas – Agent Services and Data Visualizations
Australia – DSTO – Logistics planning and information analysis
CoAX Transition Program
2000
2001
CoAX Binni
2002
2003
CoAX International?
CoAX Navy? (FBE-J, FBE-K, PC’05)
CoAX Rescue? (Civilian)
CoAX Air
CoAX/Briefing - 9
Further Details

http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/coax/

Materials for this briefing are at:
http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/coax/darpa/
CoAX/Briefing - 10
DARPA
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.