Antares Simulator

🎯 Purpose

The simulator models naval radar operations in dynamic maritime scenarios, supporting both training and system integration efforts. It enables reproducible experiments, behavior analysis, and real-time radar tracking.

🔄 Architecture Overview

ANTARES follows a modular design centered around two main subsystems: Simulation and Radar, coordinated by a central Controller.

graph TD
    Controller[Controller]
    
    Controller --> Simulation[Simulation]
    Controller --> Radar[Radar]
    
    Ship[Ship] --> Emitter[Emitter]
    Simulation --> Emitter
    
    Emitter --> MovementStrategy[Movement Strategy]
    
    Line[Line] --> MovementStrategy
    Circle[Circle] --> MovementStrategy
    Random[Random] --> MovementStrategy
    Stationary[Stationary] --> MovementStrategy
    
    Radar --> Detector[Detector]
    Radar --> Tracker[Tracker]
    
    Detector --> TrackInterface[Track InterfaceTCP]
    Tracker --> TrackInterface
    
    TrackInterface --> TCI[TCI]
    TrackInterface --> TDI[TDI]

Core Components

🎛️ Controller
Acts as a unified facade managing both simulation and radar subsystems. Provides centralized control for initialization, execution, and coordination between components.

🌊 Simulation Subsystem

• Emitters: Generate radar signals within the environment (e.g., ships, buoys)
• Ships: Moving or stationary vessels that emit trackable signals
• Movement Strategy: Implements the Strategy Pattern to decouple movement logic from entities, supporting:
  • Line: Linear movement with constant heading
  • Circle: Circular patrol patterns
  • Random: Unpredictable movement within boundaries
  • Stationary: Fixed position entities

📡 Radar Subsystem

• Detector: Captures raw signals from emitters, filters by operational range, and calculates distance/direction to generate individual plots
• Tracker: Processes multiple plots over time to establish coherent tracks, calculating target velocity and trajectory

🔗 Track Interface (TCP)

• TCI (Track Control Interface): Receives control commands from external systems for runtime radar adjustments
• TDI (Track Data Interface): Transmits detected tracks and associated data to connected systems for analysis

Design Philosophy

• High Performance: Built in Rust for type safety, memory security, and concurrent execution
• Extensibility: Strategy Pattern enables easy addition of new movement behaviors without architectural changes
• Real-Time Operation: Event-driven loop ensures sub-10ms latency for live tracking scenarios
• Integration-Ready: TCP-based interfaces support seamless connection with C4I and Combat Management Systems

The modular architecture allows components to operate independently while maintaining tight integration for real-time performance.

📦 Use Cases

• 🧭 Officer Training Simulations: Build realistic operational scenarios without physical deployments.

• 🔍 Sensor Behavior Testing: Validate how detection algorithms react under different vessel configurations.

• 🧪 System Integration & Interoperability: Emulate radar behavior to test communication with external systems (e.g., CMS, C4I).

• 🧰 Research and Development: Rapidly prototype and validate new tracking algorithms or radar control strategies.

🛠️ Configuration

Simulation parameters are defined via structured TOML or TCP commands. Entities are configurable with:

• Initial position, heading, and velocity
• Radar range, scan rate, and update interval
• Behavioral strategies and decision logic

Ships and radars can be added, modified, or removed at runtime.

Learn More

For source code, contributions, or in-depth technical details, visit the GitHub repository:
👉 https://github.com/TheSoftwareDesignLab/ANTARES/tree/main/antares