Mobile Agents and Related Features for Real Time First Responder Training Systems

This article discusses how mobile agents and scripting technology can play an important role in first-responder training simulations. From a training perspective, the power of mobile agents can greatly improve the training experience if they are easy to use and integrate and have the necessary power. Certain features should be available to mobile agents in applications such as this. As opposed to traditional mobile agent applications, supplementing a real-time training system with a mobile agent system requires many features so that agents integrate appropriately with the running application. Mobile agents with the ability to interface with the running binary application and with the features discussed in this paper can be very effective and valuable. This paper looks at the features that are necessary. We implement these features into a mobile agent system, Mobile-FIRST, and then examine its use in a first responder training video game currently in production. Using a system with these principles, integration of mobile agents becomes simple and intuitive, and can greatly improve the application in many different ways.Copyright © 2009 by ASME