Development of Smart Target Design Assist Toolkit

Protection Engineering Consultants, LLC (PEC) has teamed with Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA) Weapon Assessment Group to combine each organization’s strengths with the goal of developing a novel approach for auto-designing both baseline and modified target structures of various construction types and orthogonal and non-orthogonal orientations to be used in weaponeering analyses. Our approach will optimize the existing STMG rule bases and complement those with physics-based machine learning algorithms to assist in target auto-design for the 15-minute weaponeering cycle. We also plan to integrate a powerful open-source matrix analysis utility. This utility will primarily support auto-design functions for longer weaponeering cycles, special target structure studies, and situations involving non-conventional loading conditions, such as high seismic and wind hazards. These new auto-designer features will be brought together in the form of a user-friendly software toolkit―the Smart Target Design Assist (STDA) toolkit―that will integrate seamlessly with the existing STMG and Endgame Framework platforms. Our Phase I focus will be on categorizing the major building construction types currently covered in target generation approaches, identifying a generalized set of design parameters by structure type, and demonstrating feasibility of our auto-designer approach for a reinforced concrete framed structure type.