A team of professionals proposed that the Office of Naval Research can use existing web-based BIM to assist warfighters improve their safety. The requirements for a White Paper of no more than 5 pages results in some condensed esoteric language. However, a two page cover letter from team leader James Salmon, Esq helps clarify the point that more is possible today than most people realize.
1. Mr. Clark Phillips
Office of Naval Research
The attached White Paper is in response to Office of Naval Research Broad Agency
Announcement ONRBAA11-014.
Titled “Cloud Based Facilities Behavior Analysis: Support for Warfighters,” the White Paper is
presented by the team of professionals listed below. The team will implement award-winning
BIMStorm® cloud computing processes to achieve the stated objectives. BIMStorms® - online
brain storms - are already used by the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland
Security, General Services Administration, other government entities and private companies.
The team will establish Office of Naval Research (ONR) socio-cultural and human behavior
modeling systems. The systems will use proven, web-based business processes to improve
consensus decision making regarding forceful or peaceful actions – also known as kinetic/hard
action and non-kinetic/soft action.
The modeling software and business processes will allow repeatable analysis of data from social
networks and other sources to help determine what action to take, a process described in the
White Paper as a BIMStorm®.
The team will use the expressed and implicit goals outlined in the Broad Agency Announcement
to articulate measurable results to be explored in six (6) semi-annual BIMStorms®.
Rapid deployment of proven business tools and processes will dramatically increase knowledge
management in measurable ways. A greater understanding of human behavior in austere
environments will be achieved in a shorter period of time than is typically thought possible.
Adopting a consensus approach to determining actions in the BIMStorms®, the team will train
designated warfighters to engage provincial, town, and tribal leaders to gather information on
insurgent activity and to identify job creators, provide medical aid, or develop reconstruction
projects. Using proven building industry web processes and technology it will be possible to
gain significant indication of human behavior in austere environments.
Intelligently leveraging web-based business processes to manage water, energy, food and other
resources in theater will enable warriors to dominate soft/non-kinetic mindscapes as well as the
battle space. Rapid and authentic digital replication of known environments will empower
warfighters to interact with local populations and to leverage the insights and knowledge of
combat veterans remote to the theater. Capturing and leveraging such information will save
lives and increase mission success.
After the first BIMStorm®, which will be held within six (6) months of formal authorization, it
will be possible to dramatically increase the speed and accuracy of field level decisions. The
first event will be based on information from existing, publicly available data sets.
2. ONR leaders can leverage the BIMStorm® process, customize it and tailor subsequent
BIMStorms® to meet specific objectives. The subsequent BIMStorms® will lead to the
automation of at least one clearly defined mission critical process that can be repeated by non-
team members in a final demonstration.
Individuals and companies listed below are among those who will be asked to provide services
and/or products to benefit “Cloud Based Facilities Behavior Analysis: Support for Warfighters.”
They will provide their services and/or products to the project through an Integrated Project
Delivery contract organized by Collaborative Construction Resources.
We look forward to being of service to the Office of Naval Research.
Best regards,
James Salmon, Esq.
Founder, Collaborative Construction Resources, llc
Team Members:
Kimon Onuma, FAIA
Founder, ONUMA, Inc.
Robert Smith, PhD
Professor Emeritus, California State University
Col. (Ret.) James R. Sweeney, USMC
Military and Financial Analyst
Paul Wingate
Building Industry Analyst
Michael J. Bordenaro
Co-founder, BIM Education Co-op and Project Manager
Team Organizations:
buildingSMART alliance
CeaseFire
UEC - Electronics
Institute for the Future
3. Broad Agency Announcement (BAA)
Human Social Cultural and Behavioral Sciences
Applied Research and Advanced Technology Deployment
BAA Announcement# ONRBAA11-014
Cloud-Based Facilities Behavior Analysis:
Support for Warfighters
WHITE PAPER
Existing emergency response processes and technologies, such as those used by the
United States Coast Guard will be enhanced for kinetic and non-kinetic action analysis.
James L. Salmon, Esq.
Founder
Collaborative Construction Resources, llc
69 West Southgate, Suite 1
Fort Thomas, Kentucky 41075
(512) 630-4446 phone
(513) 562 4388 fax
James.Salmon@collaborativecr.com, www.collaborativecr.com
James L. Salmon
4. Executive Summary
A 3-year contract of $2,175,000 will allow immediate and significant warfigther support with six
(6) applied research demonstrations using BIMStorm® processes and technology for “online
brainstorms.” The applied research BIMStorm® demonstrations, utilizing advanced technology
and repeatable web-based processes, will enable modeling of human behavior in austere
environments. Warfighters armed with these tools will quickly master cultural norms in theater.
Facilities impact human activities and cultural norms. BIMStorm® processes will enable
Warfighters to quickly analyze patterns related to facilities and cultural norms. Impacted
behaviors will be linked to a building industry ontology developed by multiple federal agencies.
Tying that ontology to human behavior can help automate decisions regarding socio-cultural
issues by leveraging data acquired and processed through many means.
Publicly available Office of Naval Research data sets will be configured for web-based gaming
activities to predict and analyze facilities-related human behavior in various environments. For
comparative purposes demonstrations will focus on 1) austere environments, 2) challenging
environments, 3) rural environments and 4) urban environments.
Customized processes and technologies will combine for rapid deployment of advanced
technology for Warfighter support in all four environments. As demonstrated by multiple federal
agencies little training will be required. The result of the contract will be implementation of
multiple demonstrations involving real time information sharing over networks that include
field-proven solar-powered computers.
Mobile hardware solutions (left) being used in Afghanistan by USMC and (right) USCG facilities behavior
modeling (right) will be combined to accelerate mission success using proven tools and processes.
Introduction
BIMStorm® processes will generate virtual environments from existing ONR data. Human
interaction in those virtual environments will be recorded and compared to known reactions
from the field.
Kinetic and non-kinetic responses to events – natural and unnatural – will be recorded with
geographically referenced data. The data will be processed through cloud computing databases
to direct emergency delivery of personnel and materials to specific locations.
5. Specific conditions in austere areas will be monitored and analyzed based on advanced
processes, facilities technologies and ontologies evolved by the Department of Defense,
Department of Homeland Security, General Services Administration, NASA, and others.
Each applied research demonstration, or BIMStorm® will lead to customized capabilities to be
tested in the next BIMStorm®. Repeatable and simple web-based processes and interfaces will
enable participants to leverage visualized data to make effective decisions in theater.
The four objectives and four topics in BAA Announcement ONRBAA #11-014 will be
addressed in a series of comprehensive BIMStorm® applied research demonstrations. The
demonstrations will entail visual analysis of information reflected in predetermined report
formats, such as video, jpegs and other data delivered in XML format. Predictable human
behavior related to the facilities data will be mapped for analysis and real time decision making.
One demonstration will feature the University of Illinois at Chicago “CeaseFire” social science
program proven to reduce gun violence. The social and cultural monitoring system underlying
that study will be enhanced and applied to the BIMStorms®. The team will map, model and
monitor various environments using proven socio-cultural human behavior modification
methods from the “CeaseFire” program. The BIMStorms® will prove the immediate value of
intense data sharing, visualization and modeling based on open standards supported by the
National Institute of Building Sciences and numerous federal agencies.
Business reference models and critical functional metrics supported by the Network Centric
Operations Industry Consortium will be among the decision making processes demonstrated.
Technical Concept
The project team will use existing hardware and web-based software to support Warfighters.
Demonstrations will feature existing, publicly available data being used to produce reports
related to the objectives and topic listed. The team will develop custom processes using Cloud-
based software tool sets from Google, Microsoft, Autodesk, Bentley, Nemetschek, Onuma and
others. The processes will be repeated by Warfighters with little or no training.
Surprisingly beneficial solutions to seemingly intractable problems will result from combining
existing technologies and processes currently used by the federal agencies. Prior to each
BIMStorm® demonstration, measurable benefits will be designated by the Office of Naval
Research. Established web-based facilities technologies and processes will be used to map,
model and monitor austere environments based on building industry behavior and measurable
cultural patterns. Repeatable processes will be documented for internal implementation by the
Office of Naval Research and sharing with other appropriate entities.
A Ground Renewable Expeditionary Energy System (GREENS) will be purchased and used to
interact with existing web-based software programs. Mission success in austere environments
will be enhanced by access to reliable and renewable energy.
6. Other hardware and software technology will be included in the demonstrations. The combined
technologies will allow teams to send and receive environmental data from which information
can be reviewed by scalable knowledge bases to “game” potential human behavior.
Budget
The following are estimates that will be revised by submitting team members.
Professional services $254,000
Software $133,000
Hardware $167,000
Field testing $146,000
Expenses/Contingency $ 25,000
Annual Total $725,000
Project Total $2,175,000
Objective fulfillment
Each of the four objectives and four topics in ONR BAA Announcement #11-014 will be
addressed in comprehensive BIMStorm® demonstrations designed to extract information critical
to forward theater decisions from complex data sets determined by the Office of Naval Research.
Information mined from the data will be displayed graphically, enabling Warfighters to analyze
the information and act on it with confidence.
The Office of Naval Research will set specific, measurable goals for web-based knowledge
capture, management, automated analysis and decision-making processes during BIMStorms®.
Publicly available business processes and technologies – reflected in open standards supported
by the National Institute of Building Sciences – will be used to gather and analyze data.
Combined, the proven software and hardware processes and technologies will enhance our
Warfighters understanding of human behavior related to facilities. Measurable improvements to
decision making involving kinetic and non-kinetic action in austere, challenging, rural and urban
environments will be achieved.
Operational Naval Concept
A series of web-based knowledge capture, data management and visualizations – BIMStorms® -
will improve decision making related to kinetic and non-kinetic actions. The use of publicly
available processes and technologies will allow the Office of Naval Research to identify
classified processes and technologies that can be utilized to meet goals outside this contract for
rapid deployment of applied research and advanced technologies to assist effective decision
making by Warfighters on the battlefield.
7. BIMStorm® processes already used by the Department of Homeland Security, General Services
Administration, US Army Corps of Engineers and others will be leveraged to develop gaming
environments that allow creation and visualization of realistic battlefield scenarios. Existing,
publicly available information will be used to model facilities in Building Information Modeling
and Geographic Information Systems software operating on open standards. Multiple emergency
response scenarios will be modeled with remote assistance.
National Institute of Building Sciences supported open standards technology and business
processes - currently used by federal agencies – arm decision makers with geo-referenced
facilities data that accurately reflects reality. Mastering facilities data in austere environments
enhances the ability to predict human behavior in those environments. Relevant facilities data
and human behaviors will be modeled in a series of BIMStorms® and analyzed in real-time.
Operational Utility Assessment Plan
The Office of Naval Research will observe and participate in multiple demonstrations leading up
to the semi-annual BIMStorms® when predetermined scenarios will be played out in real-time.
Collaborative approaches to emergency response data being processed while critical decision
making responsibilities are exercised in real time will be developed based on existing practices.
Data collection, management and visualization assisting real time decision making will be
refined in six month cycles. The ONR can determine use of the processes and technologies for
long-term and increasingly automated implementation. ONR can implement widespread
distribution of the processes and technologies development at its discretion.
In preparing for the BIMStorm® demonstrations data sets will be selected, loaded and reported
in a manner that meets the measurable goals outlined in the Broad Agency Announcement.
One kinetic action explored in the BIMStorm® will be network centric warfare developed under
the Naval Postgraduate System's Mark Nissen. Specific focus will be placed on Nissen's
“Knowledge Flow” at tacit levels and implicit levels so principles and rules can improve
formalization of analysis.
BIMStorm® processes, which include use of Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Skype and other
social media communication processes, will be quickly used by people with no technical
expertise. Language barriers can be overcome by communicating with images that can be
updated in real time based on live information. More is possible today using existing
technologies and processes than most people realize.
Conclusion
Visualizing complex data sets improves decision making. Accepting data from numerous
sources, including Twitter, Facebook and analog sources, and incorporating it into a single
visualization allows for pattern recognition, leveraging of institutional knowledge and automated
kinetic or non-kinetic response based on predetermined criteria. BIMStorm® will enable
understanding of complex interrelationships between natural and unnatural disasters and will
contribute automated response for kinetic and non-kinetic action.