Initial Learning About Term Project Components: HLA, RTI, Agents

HLA (High Level Architecture) has become a familiar subject for me after my first summer practice. At that time, I got a little information which is HLA is a standard and it provides some standards enabling communication between different parts of a simulation system like computers, joysticks, simulation cabins, etc. As far as I read in the previous week, I acquired some additional information on this subject.

Firstly, I understood that my old information was a little missing that HLA provides communication between simulation components. It is the middle-ware named RTI (Run Time Infrastructure) having services that are described by HLA Interface Specification. HLA also describes federates which are parts of as reusable software units and federates communicate with each other through the services of RTI. Implementation of services of RTI are not obligated to be the same of each other, in other words there are several RTI implementations which can be chosen with respect to different kinds of needs. So, it is necessary to all federates within a federation to use the RTI same implementation.

Lastly, I had no information about agents of computer science. After a little investigation, I found out that agents are classes having ability of learning or decision making. They usually have the characteristics of autonomy, social ability, reactivity, pro-activeness, etc. So, they do their jobs without intervention of a human or some other trigger, they can interact with other agents, even they show goal directed behaviours in addition to act in response manner.

Suat Gonul