Planning the delivery of cargo as part of an airlift operation is a notoriously complex problem. Transportation routes can suddenly become inaccessible due to poor weather or other unexpected occurrences. Factors such as airplane speed, carrying capacity, and airport maximum-on-ground must also be considered to ensure on-time and efficient delivery. Unforeseen cargo needs may require quick re-planning to meet tight deadlines. To address the problem, we held the Airlift Challenge, an online multi-agent planning competition which concluded in early 2023. Competitors in the Airlift Challenge created innovative algorithms to execute a simulated airlift operation. The algorithms were scored against a set of increasingly complex evaluation scenarios while contending with unexpected events and disruptions. In this paper, we describe the competition and simulation environment, summarize results, and include write-ups of the top approaches provided by the winning teams.
Modeling Command and Control (C2) problems is notoriously complex across operating environments, systems, and missions. We seek to systematically decompose the complexities of C2, and present the foundational problems in a form that is accessible to the larger research community. Our first objective is to “flatten” core C2 problems by formulating and developing a surrogate environment that can foster new insights and evaluation. Using this framework, the second objective is to host a public challenge to acquire a diversity of solutions from outside the DoD community.
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