Towards interoperable and composable trajectory simulations: an ontology‐based approach

Trajectory simulation is a software module that computes the flight path and flight parameters of munitions. It is used throughout the engineering process, including simulations for studying the design trade‐offs, to mission simulations for defended area analysis. In this wide application domain, reuse has always been one of the challenges of the trajectory simulation community. We apply an ontology‐based simulation development methodology to fulfil the functional requirements of a trajectory simulation while targeting reuse through interoperability and composability. Trajectory Simulation ONTology (TSONT) has been constructed as a simulation conceptual model for trajectory simulations. Based on the knowledge captured in TSONT, a domain‐oriented reuse methodology has been leveraged to develop HLA‐compliant trajectory simulations. A trajectory simulation federate was developed by conforming to the simulation object model based on TSONT. This paper demonstrates our approach to achieve composable and interoperable simulations over a case study in which a trajectory simulation federate serves in a variety of federations that have been constructed.