Scenario Definition Language for Modeling & Simulation (M&S)

Virtual and constructive simulation environments provide powerful practice for warfighters because they offer realistic events to which the warfighters can respond. To use these environments for effective training, they must provide pedagogically sound training experiences which incorporate measures and assessments of trainee performance in relation to training objectives. Current scenario definition languages have been designed to provide high fidelity detail with respect to physical entities in the simulation environment, the interactions among them, and the scenario events, but they generally fail to define the pedagogical aspects of the scenario. Lacking the explicit pedagogical scenario goals, training events based on these scenarios can not be optimized to achieve the training objectives. To meet these challenges, Aptima is developing PRESTO (Pedagogically Relevant Engineering of Scenarios for Training Objectives), which will include support for developing pedagogically sound training scenarios and provide training runtime support for SAF operators to focus on bringing about the experiences the trainee needs to achieve their training objectives. PRESTO will also develop scenario language components to describe the pedagogical aspects of the scenario for incorporation into other scenario definition languages. PRESTO will be able to support a variety of simulation environments.