Complexity Challenges in Cyber Physical Systems

3NATO Use of Modeling and Simulation to Evolve Autonomous Systems

Jan Mazal¹, Agostino Bruzzone², Michele Turi¹, Marco Biagini¹, Fabio Corona¹, and Jason Jones¹

¹ NATO Modelling & Simulation Center of Excellence (M&S COE), Italy

² Genoa University, Genoa, Italy

3.1 Introduction

The idea of a synthetic and autonomous creature with performance and “mission” effectiveness comparable to human performance has existed since ancient times, and lives on in several legends such as the Golem¹ (a story that was born in ancient Egypt, and later inspired national legends in various centuries). Militaries started to purse this issue more seriously about a century ago, but technology did not permit more than rudimentary attempts with tele‐operated features. Nicola Tesla was one of the first who achieved serious results, introducing the first functional demonstrator² enabling the installation of “radio‐control” in various systems. During the Second World War, we saw significant advances in routine process automation, a key enabler to entering the space domain. But even by the 1980s, state of the art technology was more about advanced automation, and far from simulating high‐level reasoning necessary for significant breakthroughs in the Autonomous Systems area.

Several key milestones in this field came in the mid‐1990s, where a demonstration of a machine performance in a “world‐class” chess match introduced the technological potential of complex reasoning (Deep Blue vs Garry Kasparov, 1997). ...