Applying Virtual Reality and Human Figure Modeling Tools to Explore Crew ManningConfigurations of the U.S. Navy DDG Class Bridge

摘要

This report describes a portion of the modeling and simulation work performed bythe Human Research and Engineering Directorate (HRED) of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in support of the manpower assessment technologies (MAT) project. For this effort, virtual reality (VR) technology and human figure modeling tools were applied to achieve some of the objectives of the MAT project. The discussion that follows in this report focuses on two software tools in particular, Jack(TM) and the Naval Postgraduate School Networking Software (NPSNET), and how each was used to demonstrate a proof of concept capability for examining crew manning configurations on U.S. Navy ships. In the future, U.S. Navy ships will need to be automated to a sufficient degree in order to realize significant manpower reductions in engineering, combat systems, ship support and Condition 3 watch-standing requirements. The use of VR technology and human figure modeling tools to graphically visualize concepts for Navy ships on the computer and to examine manning requirements before building physical prototypes, shows great promise in the future for saving time and reducing development cost.