Distributed collaborative environments for the 21st century engineer

Distributed collaboration is an emerging technology for the 21st century that will significantly change how business is conducted in the defense and commercial sectors. Collaboration involves two or more geographically dispersed individuals working together to share and exchange data, information, knowledge, and actions. The product of the collaboration is defined broadly to include, for example, writing a report, creating software, designing hardware, or developing an alternative course of action for the commander. Distributed collaborative environments (DCE) provide the framework and integrate models, simulations, domain specific tools, and virtual test beds to facilitate collaboration between the multiple disciplines needed in the enterprise. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is conducting a leading edge program in developing distributed collaborative technologies targeted to the Air Force's implementation of a simulation-aided acquisition and test process, distributed mission training, and distributed command and control. Geographically separated teams of government and industry engineers, scientists, managers, and procurement specialists will be able to jointly develop advanced technology products. The team will be able to access widely distributed computer-based engineering tools, models and simulations, databases, and research facilities. DCE will reduce the cost of development and ownership, reduce duplication of effort, improve quality of design, and result in faster time to product. The research is focusing on the open standards agent-based framework, product and process modelling, structural architecture, and the integration technologies-the glue to integrate the software components. DCE is the underlying infrastructure that makes communication between the diverse simulations and other assets possible and manages the overall flow of the experiment. The AFRL Collaborative Environment concept will foster a major cultural change in how the acquisition, training, and operational communities conduct business.