Fault-Tolerant Cooperative Intelligent Agent Systems for Distributed C3I

High-level integration of decentralized C3I systems requires distributed/networked functionality and data. Loosely-coupled architechtures with semiautonomous components that incorporate cooperating intelligent agent technology have advantages, because of the heterogenous mix of system types and lift-cycle stages involved. However, integrity of the data flowing through such systems is vital to their successful operation. Decentralization introduces threats to system reliability as a result of the exposure of the data to loss or corruption. SENTAR proposes to combine distributed object management principles and intelligent agent designs with powerful data-diverse fault tolerance techniques and real-time planning tools to assure reliability and integrity of distributed data objects in the system, thus enhancing system dependability without relying completely on expensive physical hardening. The objective of the proposed Phase I effort is to design a fault-tolerant cooperative intelligent agent for management of distributed data objects and to evaluate a feasibility demonstration version in a simulated heterogeneous C3I system environment.