TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Electronics, Human Systems

The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals, their country of origin, and what tasks each would accomplish in the statement of work in accordance with section 3.5.b.(7) of the solicitation.

OBJECTIVE: Develop an innovative, compact, cost-effective 3D Virtual Reality (VR) Training System that could be easily transported and installed on-board a submarine, that can be used for tactical, control room training and competency certification and mission rehearsals. This 3D VR Trainer will be networked at the training site so that the students and instructor can see and communicate with each other and interact with real control room data. The technical challenge will be to provide a communications link with the security, speed and bandwidth necessary to link the trainer to remote Navy Laboratories that will be providing display and control system data output. These data will be generated by land-based full system simulation systems such as the Submarine Multi-Mission Team Trainer (SMTT) and will be live fed via satellite communication in near real-time.

The students will be equipped with head mounted displays and a control devices, such as laptop computers or hand-held controls, so that they can see combat system displays and interact with the data and control the response of the equipment that they are operating. The students� movements and their interaction with the live fed data will be tracked and recorded in real-time. The instructor will be given the additional capability to guide and teach the students during the training. VR systems with motion tracking have primarily been used as standalone systems in training environments. The technical challenge will be to design a VR trainer that will accommodate multiple users, each with motion tracking devices and communication links to the VR training system, in other words develop multiple system interfaces that work simultaneously and well together. Adding to the problem on-board a submarine will be a complex physical environment that is not conducive to short range, RF communication. The 3D Virtual Reality Training System will provide improved training efficiency and rapid acquisition of expertise of operational skills in a very realistic shipboard-like environment.

DESCRIPTION: The training of submarine combat control parties are performed using physical mock-ups located at major submarine bases or on-board ships that are pier-side in a non-dynamic environment. With the redeployment of portions of the submarine fleet to more remote locations the training of submarine crews in specially designed, fully functional training facilities becomes a very major undertaking if new facilities are needed or logistically cumbersome and time-consuming if crews are transported to a major CONUS submarine base with the required training facilities.

With the advent of low-cost, high performance computers and the development of 3D Virtual Reality technologies including commercial high fidelity computer game signal processors and algorithms in such systems as Microsoft�s Xbox 360® and Sony�s Playstation 3® video game consoles, it becomes possible to create a simulated, shipboard environment in which the student is networked together with the instructor in an immersive, virtual-reality shipboard environment through the employment of computer peripherals, such as head mounted displays and motion tracking sensors. All the users would be able to see and communicate with each other and interact with live or simulated data. The instructor would be given additional control to guide and tutor the student while connected live. Additionally, the training exercise can be linked to land-based training simulators such as the Common Basic Operator Trainer (CBOT) or the Submarine Multi-Mission Team Trainer (SMMTT), to create a dynamic, simulated real-world operational environment. The major challenges in the 3D VR Training System are the development of a system that will network a team of students and instructors on-board the submarine, developing two-way communication interfaces and links that will provide high fidelity, secure, live feed, combat display data to the students and instructors, while embedding them in a virtual real-world environment and providing the instructors the capability of interacting with the data and students to better train them for their individual combat control duties.

PHASE I: Determine the feasibility of developing a Cost-Effective, Portable Interactive 3D Virtual Reality Training System, develop the design concept and demonstrate proof-of-concept.

PHASE II: Develop a prototype Cost-Effective, Portable Interactive Training System including hardware and software, designed to be easily transported to and installed on-board a submarine. The training system will be designed to link and track students wirelessly and to be linked via a communication link to land-based simulators such as the CBOT and SMMTT. Initial demonstration will be in a dry-land Navy facility.

PHASE III: Install the Portable Interactive 3D VR Training System on-board an operational submarine and demonstrate and test the full-system Portable Interactive Training System, with realistic training scenarios

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL: Portable Interactive 3D VR Training Systems have broad application in public-sector for firefighter training and chemical and biological threat response training. An affordable VR Interactive Trainer for firefighter training would address a large domestic commercial market need.

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KEYWORDS: Virtual; Reality; Submarine; Trainer; Computer; Simulation