Battle of Trafalgar - Self Organisation Demonstrator

Offord, M. (2022) Battle of Trafalgar - Self Organisation Demonstrator. [Artefact]

Abstract

This simulation is inspired by the Battle of Trafalgar 1805 and the book Power to the Edge (Alberts and Hayes 2003). As described by Alberts and Heyes (2003), when the Royal Navy Grand Fleet faced the combined French and Spanish fleets on 21st October 1805 they were outnumbered and outgunned. Yet the Royal Navy captured 21 enemy ships with no ships lost themselves. One reason for this may be the more flexible system of Command and Control (C2), used by the Royal Navy versus the rigid C2 system that was in common use. Nelson's tactical unorthodoxy gave the Royal Navy ships more scope to behave autonomously, collaboratively and to act on information they had. This is termed self-synchronisation by Alberts and Hayes (2003). They argue that this type of decentralised decision making is particularly important in the 21st Century as data abundance makes decentralised decision making more effective. This model abastracts the concept of power to the edge from military applications to consider decision making in the 21st Century more broadly. The model is designed as a teaching aid, particularly for social science, business and military studies. The model simulates two fleets, red and blue. The disposition and characteristics of both fleets can be adjusted. Th red fleet can be made more autonomous and the results of the battle can be seen when this option is taken. The simulation demonstrates the advatages of switching to more decentralised decision making when there is sufficient information. The model can be used to consider complexity more broadly especially: Self-organisation Emergence Thresholds (self organising criticality)

• Item Type: Artefact
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Offord, Dr Matt
• Authors: Offord, M.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Management