WBI Software Experimentation Environment, Sprint Process Rapidly Tests Autonomy Algorithms 

18.12.19 09:09 PM By Anne

With all the advanced science and technology surrounding Air Force autonomy, it’s hard to imagine the outdated catch phrase, “Synchronize your watches!” would still be relevant. However, a key component of successful autonomous communication is the ability to connect to a centralized time server. Distributed clock synchronization could mean the difference between mission success or mission failure and would certainly affect the warfighter’s ability to trust man-machine teaming technologies.

 

Unlocking the Right Problem

WBI facilitated a Sprint for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Aerospace Systems Directorate, to attack this critical problem. WBI connected a team of six AFRL experts with professors from seven universities and a Google Expert in Cloud structures and facilitated problem deconstruction exercises to break down elements of the problem. At the front-end of the week-long engagement, the collaborators discovered the need for a decentralized, coordinating clock algorithm with convergence proofs was key to a solution. The Sprint led to a pivot based on new information from Dr. Cameron Nowzari (George Mason Univ) and James Berneberg (George Mason Univ). 


“Iterative innovation is essential for successfully adapting modem technologies in an evolutionary fashion.” 

– Department of Defense Cloud Strategy* 


Accelerating Transition

While collaborations like these are nothing new to the Air Force Research Laboratory, WBI’s Software Experimentation Environment (SEE) provided immediate testing capability, following the sprint. It’s not enough to provide the platform; having experts such as those from Google and WBI, on-hand enabled the team to design, implement, and demonstrate an approach for orchestrating complex network topologies in the cloud from standard adjacency list specifications with Kuebernetes. This new approach not only solves Clock Synchronization issues but validates the ability to build complex distributed testing environments on-demand in the cloud. Because collaborators were able to immediately test their concepts, the path to robust testing and integration is dramatically truncated.


What are Kubernetes?

Kubernetes is a portable, extensible open-source platform for managing containerized workloads and services, that facilitates both declarative configuration and automation. It has a large, rapidly growing ecosystem. Kubernetes services, support, and tools are widely available. https://software.af.mil/training/kubernetes/


WBI will stay engaged with the project as testing and development continues. 

*https://media.defense.gov/2019/Feb/04/2002085866/-1/-1/1/DOD-CLOUD-STRATEGY.PDF

Anne