SIMULATION-BASED ACQUISITION OF SOFTWARE FOR THE DISMOUNTED LAND WARRIOR SOLDIER

摘要

Armed with an impressive array of equipment to give an advantage over his opponent on the battlefield, the dismounted Land Warrior soldier has numerous cutting-edge technological weapons. One of the major components of the Land Warrior system is the Helmet-Mounted Display (HMD), a soldier situational awareness tool that provides critical information and direct action capabilities. A software-based Soldier Computer Interface (SCI) that is displayed in the HMD is currently in development and testing phase. Synthetic environments can provide an evaluation platform for software development teams. A virtual simulation can provide immediate and inexpensive feedback on software while saving time and money. An evaluation of the Land Warrior s SCI software might include ease of use by the soldier, ergonomic and human factor issues, and hardware interaction requirements. This evaluation platform is currently available, even though the actual Land Warrior hardware that will be used in the final system is not. The Land Warrior Training Initiative (LWTI) is a virtual simulation research project directed by TRAC-Monterey under the sponsorship of PM-Soldier. The research project benefits the testing and evaluation of the Land Warrior equipment designed for the dismounted soldier. The software is being developed from a Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) product called "Delta Force 2, produced by NovaLogic. Unique features of the commercial software include a virtual environment in which up to 50 soldiers can interact simultaneously, a terrain model that can depict vast expanses of high-resolution terrain and a detailed mission editor that allows for the creation of missions on both rural and urban terrain. The LWTI was initially an effort to develop PC-based software to augment individual and collective training for the soldiers. This platform can also be used to host the evaluation of the Land Warrior SCI software. As a Simulation-Based Acquisition (SBA) initiative, this effort allows software engineers to "plug-and-play different software configurations into the virtual environment. Based on soldier s feedback on the SCI s functionality, modifications can be made to the SCI and retested in the virtual environment. All this can be accomplished months in advance of the development of the Land Warrior hardware.