2013
DHSS 2013 Proceeding
Agent-based modelling in the New Zealand defence force
Authors: Mark Anderson
Abstract
MANA (Map Aware Non-uniform Automata) is an agent-based distillation modelling environment developed by the Operations Analysis group at the Defence Technology Agency in New Zealand. MANA purposefully leaves out detailed physical attributes of the entities concerned if they are expected to have little bearing on the study at hand. This allows scenarios to be run relatively quickly, over many excursions (i.e. Monte Carlo simulation), in order to uncover capabilities or tactics where Blue can achieve dominance over Red. Another key feature of agent- based models is that, although the one-to-one interaction between various agents and their environment may be quite simple, the combined effect of many agent interactions can lead to complicated group dynamics and emergent behaviour. This paper provides the reader with an understanding of the philosophy behind the design of MANA, an overview of its features and some examples of its use.
I3M Scientific Sponsors
I3M Industrial Sponsors
I3M Media Sponsors
