RACE: Building airspace simulations faster and better with actors

Abstract

Creating large, distributed, human-in-the-loop airspace simulations does not have to take armies of developers and years of work. Related code bases can be kept manageable even if they include sophisticated interactive visualization. Starting such projects does not have to require huge upfront licensing fees. We showed this by using contemporary internet software technology. Our Runtime for Airspace Concept Evaluation (RACE) framework utilizes the actor programming model and open source components such as Akka and WorldWind to facilitate rapid development and deployment of distributed simulations that run on top of Java virtual machines, integrate well with external systems, and communicate across the internet. RACE itself is open sourced and available from https://github.com/NASARace/race.