Generic Operational Hardware Interface For Distributed Simulation Evaluation

This project proposes the development and integration of a Hardware-in-the-Loop interface for Distributed Interactive Simulation based systems. This will allow operational hardware/software systems to plug into DIS simulators. Using operational systems in Distributed Simulation increases the fidelity of the simulator and therefore the validity of tests using these joing simulator/operational systems. Mak Technologies has developed a basic Weapon Generation Tool (WGT) which allows software modules to be interchanged. This will be the basis for a tool that allows a weapon designer to create new systems that are a mix of operational hardware and a DIS simulator. Mak will also rely on its commercial DIS Toolkit (VR-Link) and a 1553 bus simulation. The goal of Phase I is to test the feasibility of mixing operational systems with DIS simulators. Phase II will generate a commercial quality system that allows non-programmers to build joint DIS/operational systems for use in Distributed Simulation experiments. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS: The commercial applications of this technology are: automobile simulation tradeoff studies, aircraft simulation tradeoff studies, and video game generation.