Army Demonstrates Interoperable Routing

To fight effectively, the U.S. Army needs to move troops and equipment quickly and efficiently. Routing applications, which show ways to move from Point A to Point B, given a set of constraints, form the foundation of this capability. Routes can be defined in differently based on the mission, such as the shortest, fastest, or least exposed route.

Using a new Routing Application Programming Interface (RAPI) developed by the Army Geospatial Center (AGC), Esri prototyped an implementation of the API.  RAPI will let Army systems access and share routes and obstacles in a simple, interoperable way. 

RAPI is based on open standards and collaborative prototyping with the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). The Esri prototype demonstrated that RAPI can be implemented quickly and easily. In addition, RAPI can support systems in disrupted, intermittent or limited network connectivity environments. 

Based on lessons-learned in the prototyping effort, AGC will advance RAPI as draft National System for Geospatial-Intelligence Standardization Implementation Guidance (SIG) in the near future. 

RAPI is closely related to the NSG Route Exchange Model, which is complementary standards guidance. Together, REM and RAPI will allow Army applications to request and share routes from different providers, data sets, routing engines and algorithms.