Accelerated Concept Exploration Of Future Combat Systems Using Evolutionary Algorithms And Enterprise Software

Accelerated Concept Exploration of Future Combat Systems Using Evolutionary Algorithms and Enterprise Software

Army R & D labs have played a crucial role in the evaluation of emerging systems that equipped the war fighter with superior lethality. The Future Combat System's (FCS) aggressive acquisition strategy of conventional (armor, munitions, propulsion) and non-conventional (unmanned sensors, robotics) technologies place a greater demand on labs for rapid and accurate analysis of potential weapon systems. A combination of validated engineering analysis codes, Evolutionary Algorithms (EA) and Enterprise Commercial Off the Shelf Software (COTS) can greatly accelerate the evaluation of candidate systems. Traditional Modeling and Simulation (M & S) activities are not well suited for today's acquisition environment. In particular, they suffer from: premature design commitment, a failure to quickly identify dominant design factors and adapt to changing design requirements. Many of these problems stem from a lack of human engineering concurrency and communication. A partial solution to this problem is to enable virtual collaboration among a lab's modeling and simulation codes. Genetic Algorithms (GA), a subset of EA's, are an ideal catalyst for multidisciplinary concept exploration. GA's mimic the selection process that occurs among biological species in nature, but to various engineering disciplines they provide an excellent focal point in determining a weapon system's optimal configuration based on a set of given mission parameters. The organizational and cultural impact of setting up this type of virtual cooperation is far reaching and cannot be overstated. Concept exploration engines have been around for a number of years; an outstanding example is the Integrated Hypersonic Aeromechanics Tool (IHAT) used at Naval Air Command, China Lake to design hypersonic air breathing vehicles in the Mach 4-8 regime. Likewise, the Aviation and Missile Command has adopted a multidisciplinary approach through its Army Missile Collaborative Design Environment (AMCODE).

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