Synthetic Adversaries for Urban Combat Training

This article describes requirements for synthetic adversaries for urban combat training and a prototype application, MOUTBots. MOUTBots use a commercial computer game to define, implement, and test basic behavior representation requirements and the Soar architecture as the engine for knowledge representation and execution. The article describes how these components aided the development of the prototype and presents an initial evaluation against competence, taskability, fidelity, variability, transparency, and efficiency requirements. Urban combat is characterized by building-to-building, room-to-room fighting. Frequent training is an essential element in reducing casualties.