An agent based combat information processing system

Tactical battlefield applications require that agents monitoring battlefield events be able to dynamically react to events and autonomously take actions that are in the best interest of the agent (and the command and control system to which the agent belongs). In this paper, we describe how IMPACT-Interactive Maryland Platform for Agents Collaborating Together-has been used to agentise selected parts of a large scale battlefield visualisation demonstration system entitled the Combat Information Processor (CIP). The CIP has been designed by the US Army Research Laboratory to demonstrate and experiment with large scale, tactical battlefield visualisation concepts. We describe the long range vision of our goal to agentise CIP, together with details of how this agentisation has been achieved to date, and the concomitant benefits brought about in CIP functionality.