Simulation experimentation of swarms: methodologies and analyses

Abstract

Collections of autonomously behaving systems, or swarms, are predicted to be an important component of the US DoD strategy. Therefore, research into how to create swarms with suitable characteristics, behaviors, and function for these different purposes is in the interest of the US military. However, there are challenges in swarm research, including technical limitations of existing hardware, the need to address both individual drone level behavior as well as the complexities of the entire swarm behavior, and the parameter combinatorics that may be relevant to swarm performance in operations.This presentation proposes methodologies for the computer simulation research and analyses for experimentation on swarm behavior. Swarm performance data from computer simulation experimentations using simulation software were analyzed through multiple steps to investigate how individual and entire swarm characteristics might affect how well the swarm performed a mission.