Automated Player Control Station

The ever increasing complexity of distributed simulation environments has caused the level of effort required to manage and control a training exercise to become excessive. Exercise setup times and the number of human operators/instructors, needed to run an exercise, have reduced the number of useful training hours and increased the cost to train. To combat this situation, a more efficient means for controlling simulation exercises must be established. The number of simulation applications in use and the lack of consistent configuration and control methodologies require that any control mechanism be readily adaptable to new applications, while providing the instructor/coordinator a consistent interface with a minimal learning curve. Such a system must be able to accommodate industry standard protocols such as DIS, application specific protocols, and the anticipated next generation protocol. To develop this interface, a study must be made of existing applications and control mechanisms along with the methods currently employed by instructional personnel. The results must then be compared with the desired simulation functionality and human resources available to determine what actions can and should be taken to stream line the simulation control methodology and reduce the man loading required to conduct a simulation exercise.