Armed with Science | Tag Archive

Virtual Gaming = Military Training

Filed under Featured, Technology by jtozer on March 13, 2013 at 7:40 am {no comments}

Soldiers of the 157th Infantry Brigade, First Army Division East, take advantage of the Dismounted Soldier Training System. While the DSTS does not replace training, the system augments exercises by provide the ability to change or repeat scenarios multiple times. (U.S. Army photo by Maj. Penny Zamora)

In a warehouse looking much like a laser tag game room, nine soldiers gear up with flip down goggle mounts, sensors strapped to their arms and legs and carry a computer-enhanced weapon system.

Just five years ago, this scenario may have only been seen in a video game. Today, virtual training environments are a reality.

The Dismounted Soldier Training System and Engagement Skills Trainer 2000 are two virtual training tools that are quickly becoming the norm for soldiers of the 157^th Infantry Brigade, First Army Division East, in training deploying units at Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center, Ind.

“One of the best parts of the DSTS is that we can create any operational environment, for our training in a virtual environment. It does not replace training, but it can add to it. We can bring the terrain of Afghanistan to the soldier. It’s hard to imagine a mountainous terrain in Indiana, but the DSTS can create it,” said Sgt. 1^st Class Aaron Hammond, Operations, 157^th Infantry Brigade, First Army Division East.

Hammond and his team recently participated in a DSTS session to learn the capabilities offered at CAJMTC virtual simulation centers. Geared up and ready to engage in a building entry exercise, the nine-man squad immediately encountered and reacted to enemy fire.

With one member quickly disabled, the team must quickly adjust tactics, techniques, and procedures, and continue their mission.

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From Virtual Marksmanship To Waste Water Reuse

Filed under Education & Culture, Logistics by jtozer on March 11, 2013 at 7:54 am {no comments}

Army commands can start thinking now about submitting study proposals to the Army Study Program Management Office for consideration this summer.

A study is underway now, funded by the Army Study Program Management Office, to look into the incorporation of the fully burdened cost of energy into combat modeling. The fully burdened cost of energy — the cost of a gallon of fuel in theater, for instance — takes into account not just the initial cost of fuel at sale, but also the cost of transporting it to where it is needed — such as by convoy. (Photo by C. Todd Lopez)

Meghan Mariman, director of the Army Study Program Management Office, known as ASPMO, which is part of G-8 at the Pentagon, said that each year, her office pays for about 30 studies at the request of Headquarters, Department of the Army agencies and Army-level commands.

A study, she said, is a research project or an effort to make a project more efficient.

The ASPMO is funding studies this year into traumatic brain injury monitoring, risk assessment, leadership development, and cyberspace operations, for instance.

“We’re looking to make smarter decisions, to either make a process more efficient or more effective,” Mariman said.

Funded in fiscal year 2013 by ASPMO are studies on cyberspace defensive operations, the effectiveness of the Selected Reserve Incentive Program in maintaining the Reserve force, the use of locally-sourced materials for construction of facilities in theater, and something called “Neurocognitive Temporal Training and Marksmanship Performance.”

“Using a virtual environment, soldiers can become better sharpshooters,” Mariman said of the study on neurocognitive training. “And they can use a virtual environment, which saves money; the Office of the Surgeon General has some brilliant work going on.”

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Future Soldiers Will Have Flexible Electronics Everywhere

Filed under STEM, Technology by jtozer on March 1, 2013 at 7:31 am {no comments}

Future soldiers will have plastic electronic sensors embedded in their helmets and uniforms. Research has brought electronics to flexible plastic through the combined efforts of industry, academia and Army scientists. (Photo Credit: Conrad Johnson, RDECOM Public Affairs)

More than 10 years ago, U.S. Army researchers saw potential in flexible displays. With nothing in the marketplace, the Army decided to change that by partnering with industry and academia to create the Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University.

The Army’s goal was to get this amazing technology into the hands of soldiers.

The Army established a research center with industry and universities in 2004. Fast forward nine years. Teams of researchers have scored significant breakthroughs and racked up more than 50 patents. The original goal of the program may soon be met.

“We were starting to develop a lot of new kinds of electronic gizmos to help soldiers,” said Nick Colaneri, center director. “The problem was, they all needed displays. Flat displays today are made out of glass. Glass is heavy and it breaks. So, we’re all about getting the glass out of displays.”

Researchers say the most important result was figuring out how to put conventional electronics onto plastic using existing electronics manufacturing equipment. This manufacturing breakthrough opened a world of possibilities.

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Smart Phone Charging Increases Cyber Threat

Filed under Cyber Security, Technology by jtozer on February 21, 2013 at 7:43 am {no comments}

Smart phone owners with access to government computers in South Korea have rapidly become the number one group of cyber security violators at Yongsan Garrison, South Korea. (Photo by Capt. James Williams III, NETCOM)

Smart phone owners with access to government computers in South Korea have rapidly become the number one group of cyber security violators in the country.

Over a recent seven-day period, the Korea Theater Network Operations Center detected 129 cyber violations caused by smart phones alone. Most of the perpetrators did not realize they had done anything wrong.

“The main problem is that people are using their government computers to charge their phones with USB cables,” said Lt. Col Mary M. Rezendes, 1st Signal Brigade operations officer-in-charge. “They don’t realize that computers recognize their phones as hard drives and that their software puts our network at risk.”

The Army‘s information assurance policies, found in Army Regulation 25-2, prohibit the use of USB devices on its networks. Before being granted access to Army networks, users are required to take cyber security training. They also sign a user agreement that states that they will not use USB devices on government computers.

“Cyber security is at the top of the list of our priorities and we must hold those accountable for violating the Army’s policies,” Rezendes said.

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Lab Testing Seeks Data on Modified Gunner Protection Design

Filed under STEM, Technology by jtozer on February 8, 2013 at 9:45 am {no comments}

The best way to evaluate the effectiveness of a product is to put it in the hands of the user, obtain feedback, and make adjustments accordingly.

With a newly developed Virtual Environment Test Bed scientists and engineers at the Target Behavioral Research Laboratory at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., can record how soldiers react and perform inside a newly modified Objective Gunner Protection Kit. (Photo by Todd Mozes)

With a newly developed Virtual Environment Test Bed, or VETB, scientists and engineers at the Target Behavioral Research Laboratory at Picatinny Arsenal can record how soldiers react and perform inside a newly modified Objective Gunner Protection Kit, or OGPK.

The OGPK is an armored turret that provides much-needed protection for tactical vehicle gunners in combat situations. Soldiers voted the OGPK as one of the Army‘s top 10 Greatest Inventions in 2007, the year it was first fielded.

“The purpose of testing the OGPK in a virtual test bed is to evaluate gunner performance in various threat scenarios,” said Thomas Kiel, chief, Turret Engineering and Force Protection in the Systems Engineering Directorate, part of the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, known as ARDEC.

A customized version of the “America’s Army” gaming environment was integrated with the actual OGPK hardware and weapon system to provide a more realistic simulation.

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Army Supports Science, Technology Youth Activities

Filed under Education & Culture, STEM by jtozer on February 6, 2013 at 7:13 am {no comments}

This Boston Green Academy student (right) is at SolidWorks facility in Waltham, Mass., just outside of Boston. It was the Army-sponsored kickoff to that region. With him is Tony Schumacher, the Army-sponsored NHRA Top Fuel Dragster driver.(courtesy photo)

Today’s soldiers are strong and technologically savvy, and the Army aims to continue to attract these young people to its ranks, said Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Marketing Mark S. Davis.

The Army also wants to educate the public about the many opportunities it offers young people who want careers in science and technology, said Davis, who also is the director of Army Marketing and Research Group, or AM&RG, which was created in April 2011.

“The more we expose the public to our soldiers, civilians and family members, the stronger our brand becomes, the more our story is understood and believed, and the more comfortable influencers and potential prospects are in recommending or serving in our ranks.”

One AM&RG initiative, started a year ago, involves science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, activities and competitions in high schools across the country.

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Army Scientists Improve Garbage-to-energy Prototype

Filed under Energy, STEM by jtozer on December 23, 2012 at 7:25 am {no comments}

With a zero carbon footprint, the improved TGER 2.0 prototype reduces the volume of waste in 30 to one ratio. According to ECBC scientist James Valdes, 30 cubic yards of trash could be reduced to one cubic yard of ash.

The year was 2008 and the on-going war in Iraq was a dangerous landscape for soldiers on the ground. Especially for convoys traveling to and from base camps.

Roadside bombs and enemy ambushes were frequent occurrences for U.S. Armed Forces transporting fuel, a risk that may be reduced if camps are equipped with a Tactical Garbage to Energy Refinery prototype.

“If you’re a forward-operating base, you don’t want a local contractor coming in to haul your garbage out because you don’t know if they’re good guys or bad guys,” said Dr. James Valdes, a senior technologist at the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center. “You also don’t want to be hauling fuel in because those convoys are targets and risk the lives of soldiers and contractors.”

For 90 days, Camp Victory in Baghdad was home to the first two TGER prototypes, a deployable machine tactically designed to convert military field waste into immediate usable energy for forward operating bases.

The biorefinery system is a trailer-mounted hybrid technology that can support a 550-person unit that generates about 2,500 pounds of trash per day, and converts roughly a ton of that garbage–paper, plastic, packaging and food waste—into electricity via a standard 60-kilowatt diesel generator.

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Soldiers Train With Remote-controlled Mine-clearing System

Filed under STEM, Technology by jtozer on December 20, 2012 at 7:09 am {no comments}

Soldiers from First Army Division West’s 5th Armored Brigade “Task Force Rampant,” and the 321st Engineer Company (Route Clearance), from Conroe, Texas, receive instruction on the M160 MV4 remotely-controlled mine clearance vehicle, at McGregor Range, N.M. The M160 MV4 is currently used in Afghanistan by route clearance units.

Tripping improvised explosive devices and unexploded ordnance in a controlled way to avoid soldier injury has become an automated process now for soldiers here and at Fort Bliss, Texas.

Soldiers are now training on the M160 MV4 DOK-ING, a remote-controlled, tracked mine clearance system to trip hidden improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, unexploded ordnance, known as UXOs, and anti-personnel mines.

By sending the system out to look for explosive dangers, soldiers can clear a route without putting themselves in danger.

“Never send a man to do a machine’s job,” said Mark Decker, a technician trainer and instructor with the Robotics Systems Joint Project Office.

The M160 MV4 is the first of its kind here and is the latest addition to the Mobilization Training Center, the route clearance training program at Fort Bliss.

Several soldiers from First Army Division West’s 5th Armored Brigade’s “Task Force Rampant,” recently trained on the vehicle, along with joint warfighters who are training with Rampant in preparation for deployment to Afghanistan.

The M160 MV4 is currently used in Afghanistan by route clearance units.

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