Discovery Machine builds prototype for advanced 21st-century automated
replenishment plan

Vastly improves the affordable modeling of human behavior

Replenishment at sea, vitally important to keeping a fleet on mission and in the fight, is inherently challenging and dangerous. Turbulent seas add even more risk as two or more ships remain in motion while maneuvering alongside to transfer fuel, munitions, supplies or personnel.

Speed is key and safety tantamount. Cargo from missiles to fresh eggs must be staged with the same precision that a flight deck preps jets for launch.

The Challenge

Northrop Grumman Newport News, builder of the U.S. Navy's aircraft carriers—the world's largest warships—is the prime contractor for the CVN 21 nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the centerpiece of tomorrow's Carrier Strike Groups. Critical carrier operations, such as weapons handling and transfer, are among the advanced systems being developed with the aid of simulation and modeling. Through the Office of Naval Research's Warfighting Concepts (WARCON) program, Discovery Machine Inc. partnered with MTS Systems to develop an prototype of a demanding decision support system: underway replenishment.

Discovery Machine Inc. trained the onsite Northrop Grumman team, enabling them to capture and leverage knowledge acquired by years of sea-going experience. Given specified criteria, the prototype offload planning system evaluates the logic and then determines an optimized plan, providing relatively inexperienced personnel with crucial, near real-time decision support.

The Key Solution

Working onsite with highly experienced, recently retired Navy ordnance handling officers, the Discovery Machine Inc. team utilized proven Discovery Machine Methodology to specify complex behaviors, rules and courses of action, and then to compose and execute complex models of the process. Using the Discovery Machine, the ordnance-handling officers’ expertise was captured, and the resulting models were built into a Replenishment Along Side Planner (RASP) prototype—all without the costly, time-consuming necessity of writing code.

The Result

Discovery Machine Inc. proved the feasibility of capturing and automating the sophisticated human knowledge required for safe underway replenishment. In the future, this new capability will help reduce the time carriers are exposed during replenishment, thereby safeguarding lives and billions of dollars in ships, munitions and supplies.

Northrop Grumman’s Replenishment Along Side Planner serves as one of the most adaptive, intelligent applications to demonstrate that knowledge automation is a crucial component of the Navy’s 21st-century technological transformation.