Intelligent Systems Report € March € 1996 € Volume 13 € No. 3

Guardsmen train on virtual tanks

With military bases closing and the federal government cutting back on defense spending, the U.S. Armed Forces needs to get more bang for its buck, so to speak. One of its most valuable resources is the 1 million members of the National Guard and Reserves. These Guardsmen and Reservists typically spend one weekend a month and two weeks a year performing their duties. With such a limited amount of time, training these men and women becomes more important than ever.

To that end, virtual reality (VR) is being used to help keep Reservists and Guardsmen up-to-date on the expensive technology they are expected to understand, operate and repair. Under contract to the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. government, the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) (Research Triangle Park, N.C.) has designed and implemented an advanced training system for National Guard tank mechanics that is believed to be one of the largest commercial VR projects to date.

The system includes a full set of courseware, and uses the VR software to launch scenarios from within the lessons. The training system is geared to maintain a mechanic's proficiency in the use of technical manuals and simplified test equipment in diagnosing problems.

Designed specifically for the M1 Abrams tank and M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the training system provides mechanics with interactive training time on a monthly basis. Since large and expensive tanks are not typically available at local armories, Guardsmen previously had to travel to a major base to get hands-on time with the vehicles.

Now, using the VR system, mechanics can navigate through 3-D computer models of the vehicles as well as cutaways of their interiors showing the line-replaceable units (LRUs). They can also interact with the interior of the gunner's and driver's compartments. Using this interactivity, the students can select any of the LRUs in either compartment for closer inspection. They can then activate switches, rotate knobs and manipulate controls while performing diagnostic tests. The training module guides and monitors the students' progress in diagnosing a fault in the vehicle.

Frequent interactive training increases efficiency and reduces review time when Guardsmen fulfill their annual two-week duty. The training also ensures that Guardsmen are prepared in the event that they are called for active duty.

The training system is a viable solution because it not only provides effective training, it is also cost efficient and easily deployable to local armories. The system developed by RTI runs on a 90 MHz Pentium PC equipped with a 3-D graphics accelerator board and StereoGraphics' CrystalEyes for stereoscopic image generation and viewing. The software development environment consists of Autodesk's 3D Studio modeler for the generation of the database, Sense8's WorldToolKit for the building of and interaction with virtual environments, and Macromedia's Authorware for the generation of computer-based lessons.

The RTI is a non-profit contract research organization founded by the University of North Carolina, North Carolina State University and Duke University. RTI's Virtual Reality Program provides scientific integration services for the development of VR solutions for modeling, training, simulation, and architectural walkthroughs.
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