Riverine Operations:Modeling and Simulation

GUSTAVO HENRIQUE S. O. LYRIOglyrio@tecgraf.puc-rio.br

ROBERTO DE BEAUCLAIR SEIXAStron@impa.br

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Outline

• Introduction• Riverine Environments• Modeling Elements

– Terrain, Rivers – Movement, Detection, Engagement, Fire and Aerial

Support, Engineering, Patrol, Fluvial Blockage, Divers– Regional Deceases and Residues in the Rivers

• Architecture and Implementation• Conclusions and Future Work

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Introduction

• Partnership – Brazilian Mariners and Computer Graphics Technology Group at Catholic

University of Rio de Janeiro– Modeling and Development of Warfare Simulation Training Systems

• Brazilian Mariners Educational and Training Officer’s Course– Military Planning Process– Amphibious (Assault) Operation– Riverine Operation

• Computer Simulations– Recurrence– Doctrinal validation– Planning evaluation

• High level of complexity to ensure reality (as close as possible)

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Modeling Purposes

• To take control over a riverine environment the mariner forces should be able to:– Move efficiently over terrain and beyond the rivers

facing natural or artificial obstacles, poisonous animals e regional deceases.

– Engage, with fire support over the enemy.– Execute engineering tasks.– Avoid growing of guerrilla and narcotraffic inside the

country.– Interact with local population.

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Riverine Environments

Brazil has two different areas classified as riverine:

Amazon Pantanal

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Amazon

• The plentiful hydrography, which comprehends the denser fluvial basin in the world, requires the riverine operations to concentrate mainly along the rivers, with aircrafts doing just identification flights.

• The balance between the jungle and its dense and varying forest makes difficult the ground visibility and prevents both the air support and the use of combat and transportation vehicles.

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Riverine Environments: Amazon

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Pantanal

• The largest continuous wetland in the globe constitutes a huge plain of flooding areas in the rain season.

• The Pantanal changes a lot between the dry and rain seasons, contrasting to the Amazon, where the ground conditions are constant along the whole year.

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Riverine Environments: Pantanal

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Terrain Modeling

• How to get terrain attributes in riverine areas ?– Vegetation, Trafficability, Speed, …

• Simple solution.– But good enough for training/simulate riverine operations!

• Requires:– Satellite images.– Quantification algorithm.– Mapping table (color X terrain type).

• definition of terrain types needed in the simulation.

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Terrain Modeling

River

Mud

Riverbank

Sand

Virgin Forrest

Dense Forrest

Forrest

Sparse Forrest

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Rivers

• They are crucial.• Necessary information:

– Speed and direction of the stream;– Depth – Riverbank characteristics.

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Movements

• Speed depends on the terrain type.

• Rivers: the direction and speed of the stream.

• Check for natural and manmade obstacles (traps, bridges).

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Elements Detection

• Detection model based on probabilities along the vision line (line-of-sight).

• As the visibility in riverine environments is reduced, the detection becomes the decisive factor for the possibility of confrontation between two combat elements because the detection range is shorter than the range of the weapons.

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Engagement

• The engagement routine is very complex due to the necessity of a large amount of information: – Type of weapon.– Amount of ammunition.– The lethality of each weapon.

• Depends on the type of ammunition.• It may be zero (some ammunition has zero lethality).

– Amount of shots that hits the enemy.– Enemy casualties (fatalities and wounds).

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Combat Model (Conventional Forces)

• Lanchester has established a system of differential equations that intends to quantify the fatalities in a battle.

• The system is based on the principle that the losses imposed to one of the forces is directly proportional to the number of elements in the other side.

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Combat Model (Conventional Forces)

bX

aY

X Y

−=

−=

bXdtdY

aYdtdX

where a and b are, respectively, the efficacy coefficient of forces Y and X.

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Conventional X Non-Conventional Force

• A mathematical model doesn't exist for riverine operations

bxdtdy

aydtdx

−=

−=

cxdtdy

gxydtdx

−=

−=?Conventional Non-Conventional

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Conventional X Non-Conventional Force

• Conventional force (linear)– c (efficacy coefficient) = ry * py (cadency * hit

probability)

• Non-conventional force (non-linear)– g (efficacy coefficient) = ry * Ar (covered area ratio)

• S.J. Deitchman, “A Lanchester Model of Guerrilla Warfare”, 1962.– Conventional force must have, at least, 10 times more

combat power than Non-conventional force

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Fire and Logistic Aerial Support

• Although in the Amazon the dense vegetation makes almost impossible the use of aerial support, its use in the Pantanal is quite feasible

• Fire support– Artillery, naval and aerial

• Logistic aerial support– Logistic tasks– Aerial recognition

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Patrol

• Recognition patrol.– Reports enemy´s position in case of sighting.– Does not take any offensive action and avoid

confrontation at any cost. • Combat patrol.

– Pursues the enemy while possible or until elimination.

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Ambushes

• The guerrilla avoids direct confrontation with conventional forces. It frequently set up ambushes and leaves the place quickly.

• Such ambushes cause casualties, delay the progress, and reduce moral and motivation of the troops.

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Fluvial Blockage and Passage

• The fluvial blockage is the closure for transit of a specific portion of the river.– allows boat inspections assuring the security of

both military installations and vessels localized in that region.

• A passage is an area of the fluvial blockage where the transit of vessels is allowed. It is set along the river's margin where the blockage is localized.

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Regional Deceases

• The riverine environment is quite favorable to concentration of dangerous bugs, poison animals and regional deceases.

• It is important to consider such agents during the simulation because they push the simulation closer to the reality, developing the sense of care.

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Combat Divers

Combat Divers are extremely important elements in a riverine operation. A unique combat diver is able to be infiltrated close to his target by aircrafts, ground vehicles, boats or vessels.

The combat diver approaches its target without being noticed using extremely quiet scuba gears, which makes no bubbles (closed circuit).

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Architecture and Implementation

• The Riverine Operation Simulation System is a program that simulates, in real time, a conflict situation.

• The system is composed basically by 3 modules:– Execution module - the core (engine) of the system.

– Interface module - how the user interacts with the system.

– Persistence module - how the information will be stored, recovered and consulted synchronously by the user.

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Conclusions

• The described modeling offers, in a unique system, the mapping of the real characteristics of two types of terrain, like Amazon and Pantanal, which besides their differences are classified as riverine environments, increasing the realism of the simulation.

• In pacific countries, like Brazil, didactic military simulations constitutes fundamental part in the formation of both Mariners officers and privates, providing a way to evaluate and improve their training.

• The computers have enlarged the possibilities of military simulations and have been successfully used along several years by the Brazilian Mariners.

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Future Work

• Development of an autonomous behavior for guerrilla based on the agents' model using fuzzy logic.

• Improvements of communication model with radio propagation constraints in HF and VHF bands.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thanks the Brazilian Mariners Corps for the knowledge shared during this work and for the profitable years of partnership.

Riverine Operations:Modeling and Simulation

GUSTAVO HENRIQUE S. O. LYRIOglyrio@tecgraf.puc-rio.br

ROBERTO DE BEAUCLAIR SEIXAStron@impa.br