FDK- Federated Simulations Development Kit

If you have already obtained the username and password for downloading the FDK, you can proceed to the download page here.

Overview

What is the FDK?

FDK stands for Federated Simulations Development Kit, which is a software system that has been developed at Georgia Tech by the PADS research group led by Professor Richard Fujimoto. It contains independent modules for building run-time infrastructures (RTIs) using which different simulations can be integrated with each other. The FDK is carefully designed so that RTI developers can pick and choose from the set of FDK modules that are most appropriate for developing their particular RTI implementation. RTI developers can benefit from incorporating these ready-made modules, and avoid having to develop them on their own.

Follow these links to see a) an illustration , b) an overview or c) performance details of the FDK modules.

What is Jane?

Jane is a simulator-independent, client/server-based graphical interface and scripting tool for interactive parallel and distributed simulations. RTI-based federated simulations can be executed using the Jane system. The Jane software includes a server written in C, and a client written in Java. It is provided as a separate distribution. See an overview of Jane.

Background

Federated simulations in which different simulators interoperate with each other in executing a single simulation are increasingly becoming important in many areas, such as battle field simulation and distributed multi-user games. The significance of interoperability of different simulators is highlighted by the High Level Architecture (HLA) initiative of the US Department of Defense (see the special issue of the journal SIMULATION, Volume 71, Number 6, December 1998, by SCS). The FDK software is designed to facilitate in building efficient run-time infrastructures (RTIs) that are necessary in such federated simulations. The FDK is currently being used by Georgia Tech researchers in various federated simulation projects, such as in building an efficient and extensible RTI for the HLA. The FDK software is being released to university and industry researchers as part of the University Outreach program sponsored by the Defense Modeling and Simulation Organization (DMSO) . This is aimed at promoting research in designing and building new, faster and better RTIs.

FDK Users

The FDK user community is alive and well. Here is a representative list of places where the FDK is in use:

NASA Ames Research Center: They are using the FDK for simulating vehicles used for extra-terrestrial navigation and space exploration.

VEnOM Labs: They are using the FDK for creating VR environments to train citizens and military personnel to respond to WMD threats.

Department of Computer System Engineering, Carleton University: Dr. Trevor Pearce leads a project for developing a configurable Java based RTI.

Tune-in to the FDK community by joining the fdk-info@cc.gatech.edu mailing list. You can get general information, trouble shooting guidance and updates from developers. To join this list, send an email to majordomo@cc.gatech.edu with 'subscribe fdk-info' as the body.

Obtaining the software

The FDK distributions are export controlled. You need to agree to the FDK Usage Agreement and send an email to fdk@cc.gatech.edu as mentioned on the agreement page.

FDK Team

Copyrights and disclaimers

Permission to use, copy and modify this software and its documentation for any research purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appears in all copies and that both the copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. The use or inclusion of this software or its documentation in any commercial product or distribution of this software to any other party without specific, written prior permission is prohibited.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED AS IS AND GEORGIA TECH RESEARCH CORPORATION DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL GEORGIA TECH RESEARCH CORPORATION OR THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.