Applying A Formal Language of Command and Control For Interoperability Between Systems

摘要

Battle Management Language (BML) is being developed as an open standard that unambiguously specifies Command and Control information, including orders and reports built upon precise representations of tasks. BML is both a methodology and a language specification, based on doctrine and consistent with Coalition standards. Recent work has concentrated on leveraging standard data model semantics (particularly the Joint Consultation, Command and Control Information Exchange Data Model JC3IDM) for a Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO) Coalition BML (C-BML) specification. While current BML work has organized task representations around the Command and Control Information Exchange Data Model and the 5 Ws (WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN and WHY), the grammar is implicit rather than explicit. Development of a formal grammar is necessary for the specification of a complete language. Formalizing BML by defining its grammar follows the conventions determined by the theory of Linguistics. Initially, it must be determined which type of grammar is to be used. The Chomsky hierarchy specifies that grammars can be Type 0 (unrestricted grammars), Type 1 (context-sensitive grammars), Type 2 (context-free grammars) or Type 3 (regular grammars). While humans sometimes use constructions that may best be described by a context-sensitive grammar (type 1), automated processing is best supported by a more constrained one (Type 2 or Type 3). Our analysis indicates that a Type 2 grammar best fits the requirements for a BML. To specify a BML grammar (our implementation is the C2 Lexical Functional Grammar - C2LG), rules are developed to determine how to create valid BML sentences that describe military tasks, requests and reports.