Presagis has been tracking some key technology trends in the Modeling and Simulation (M&S) industry. In this month's Q&A Nick Giannias, Presagis Vice President of Research & Technology, addresses a few key industry issues.
In addition to new market requirements, new systems and technologies also drive changes in M&S applications. A perfect example of how M&S must adapt to meet the needs arising from new technologies is the increased use of robotics, from UAVs to the US Army's Future Combat System (FCS). These new technologies have resulted in a new set of issues that the M&S industry is working to resolve through analysis capabilities in the early development phases as well as decision support and training capabilities in the operational phases.
Current world events mean that more government divisions are looking to simulation applications to help them train personnel and to develop contingency plans. These simulations are often new types of applications and therefore either require new kinds of software or require that traditional software be used in an entirely new way. In addition, these applications are also quite complex and can present challenges previously unseen in the M&S industry. The result is an increasing need for robust and flexible M&S software.
M&S vendors are challenged to deliver solutions to meet these new application requirements. In the last decade, there was a dramatic increase in the number of small players and solutions in the M&S industry. While the solutions being created have contributed significantly to the technological advancements we have experienced, they have also raised issues of compatibility, usability, and accessibility.
To ensure that our industry continues to innovate in an effective and efficient manner, conformance to standards is playing a major role in the development of software. By establishing and adopting industry standards, vendors are able to address issues raised by recent technological advancements, and adhering to industry standards will improve the accessibility and reusability of current and future data. The result will be that customers will save both time and money without sacrificing choice.
Traditionally, simulations were comprised mostly of flight simulators. Now, with the changing realities of our global interactions, there is an increased demand for more specific types of M&S applications and software. We are seeing the need for urban terrain simulations that include the interiors of buildings and for homeland security applications that range all the way from subway evacuation procedures to roadside Improvised Explosive Device (IED) simulations.
Along with the changing nature of M&S applications, development timelines have also changed. These new applications must be created quickly and easily as end-users need their applications immediately. Consequently, there is a driving demand for stable, robust, flexible, and intelligent software for creating this new breed of M&S applications.
Moving forward, it will be vital for software developers in M&S to keep distributed workgroups in mind. Large simulation projects are similar to large software projects that have adopted distributed development teams to shorten development cycles and to utilize expertise wherever the need may reside. Developing software solutions that support these distributed workgroups will be critical, especially in the areas of content creation that typically require a lot of manpower.
Large simulation projects also involve managing the work process and the work products. For example, stitching together the outputs of distributed teams can be very time-consuming task that would benefit greatly from specialized tools. This is especially true in content creation where the demands being placed on the size and density of terrain databases are increasing exponentially.