Distributed, multi-domain option generation across legacy planners
Michael K. Schneider, Laura Barbulescu, Lya Batlle-Rafferty, Laura E. Smith, Michael Cook, Tom Kapler, Matt Loppie, Ed Pelletier, Zack Rubinstein, Steve Smith, Michael Miller, Jason C. HandUber, Caroline Richard, Greg Kuperman · 2022
This paper presents an effective pipeline for generating cross-domain plan options for Multi-Domain Operations through the coordinated use of legacy planning systems. We accomplish this by combining the intuitive interface of our Distributed InteRactivE C2 Tool (DIRECT) with the efficient distributed AI reasoning of our Multi-Domain Adaptive Request Service (MARS). Existing military planning processes are typically stove-piped and use a variety of manual and domain-specific legacy planning tools. This makes it challenging to generate a plan that draws on resources from different domains for different tasks, resulting in underutilized resources and unfulfilled tasks. MARS uses a marketplace approach to address this problem by conducting auctions that enable legacy planners to participate in a cross-domain planning process. Moreover, MARS provides a framework for developing new automated domain planners in cases with limited existing automated planning support. The process works for either pre-execution or in-execution planning. DIRECT provides an interface to the operator to navigate and compare these cross-domain plan options in the context of the original plan to provide transparency and build trust with the operator. Our experiments demonstrate the efficacy of the approach using a combination of our Air Planner and surrogate legacy planners for space and ground fires, as compared to stove-piped systems. For example, we are able to increase the percentage of requests fulfilled for sequencing strike and battle damage assessment effects from 38% using only single domain air assets to 54% when using the auction to draw in air, land, and space assets.