Abstract

In August of 1998 the Collaborative Agent Design Research Center (CADRC) of the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly), approached Dr. Phillip Abraham of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) with the proposal for an annual workshop focusing on emerging concepts in decision-support systems for military applications. The proposal was considered timely by the ONR Logistics Program Office for at least two reasons. First, rapid advances in information systems technology over the past decade had produced distributed, collaborative computer-assistance capabilities with profound potential for providing meaningful support to military decision makers. Indeed, some systems based on these new capabilities such as the Integrated Marine Multi-Agent Command and Control System (IMMACCS) and the Integrated Computerized Deployment System (ICODES) had already reached the field testing and final product stages, respectively.

Second, over the past two decades the US Navy and Marine Corps have been increasingly challenged by missions demanding the rapid deployment of forces into hostile or devastated territories with minimum or non-existent indigenous support capabilities. Under these conditions Marine Corps forces have to rely mostly, if not entirely, on sea-based support and sustainment operations. Operational strategies such as Operational Maneuver From The Sea (OMFTS) and Sea To Objective Maneuver (STOM) are very much in need of intelligent, real-time and adaptive decision-support tools to assist military commanders and their staff under conditions of rapid change and overwhelming data loads. In the light of these developments the Logistics Program Office of ONR considered it timely to provide an annual forum for the interchange of ideas, needs and concepts that would address the decision-support requirements and opportunities in combined Navy and Marine Corps sea-based warfare and humanitarian relief operations.

The first ONR Workshop (Collaborative Decision Making Tools) was held April 20-22, 1999 and focused on advances in technology with particular emphasis on an emerging family of powerful computer-based tools. The workshop concluded that the most able members of this family of tools appear to be computer-based agents that are capable of communicating within a virtual environment of objects and relationships representing the real world of sea-based operations. Keynote speakers included: VAdm Jerry Tuttle (USN Ret.); LtGen Paul Van Riper (USMC Ret.); RAdm Leland Kollmorgen (USN Ret.); and, Dr. Gary Klein (Chairman, Klein Assoc.).

The second ONR Workshop (The Human-Computer Partnership in Decision-Support) held May 24, 2000, was structured in two parts: a relatively small number of selected formal presentations (i.e., technical papers) followed each afternoon by four concurrent open forum discussion seminars. Keynote speakers included: Dr. Ronald DeMarco (Assoc. Technical Director, ONR); RAdm Charles Munns (USN); Col Robert Schmidle (USMC); and, Col Ray Cole (USMC Ret., Program Manager ELB ACTD, ONR).

The third ONR Workshop (Continuing the Revolution in Military Affairs) was held June 5-7, 2001 and focused on: the changing role of the military in a post Cold War environment; adaptive interoperable decision-support systems utilizing intelligent collaborating software agents; and, the transitional period. Keynote speakers included Mr. Andrew Marshall, Head of the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment, and RAdm Jay M. Cohen, Chief of Naval Research, Office of Naval Research (ONR).

The fourth ONR Workshop (Transformation...) described in these Proceedings was held on September 18-19, 2002 at The Clubs in Quantico on the Quantico Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia.

Disciplines

Software Engineering

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URL: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cadrc/5