Semantic Interoperability in Distributed Planning

Abstract : The USAF Command and Control (C2) is undergoing a transformation from a co-located, theater-centric process to one that is worldwide and distributed. A key challenge for this transformation to Globally-Linked Air and Space Operations Centers is developing the ability to collaboratively plan and execute operations with multiple cooperating command centers. This paper describes an in-house program underway at the USAF Research Laboratory Information Directorate that is developing technologies to support the concepts of Network Centric Operations. In particular, research is presented that extends the Object Model Working Group's Core Plan Representation (CPR) framework utilizing semantic technologies to capture planning experiences in both human- and machine-readable form. A key feature of these extensions is common, interoperable plan representation amongst the distributed heterogeneous planning agents. Semantic interoperability of the plan representation is critical to support distributed planning. The initial approach to achieving interoperability is a limited taxonomy for describing key plan-related information. The research presented utilizes open standards semantic technology to encapsulate plans as self-describing semantic objects.