RHA Conducts LVC SIDFOT Demonstration at Calamityville

  • Published
  • By Michela Greco
  • 711th Human Performance Wing
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  The Human Effectiveness Directorate's Warfighter Readiness Research Division (RHA) conducted a Live, Virtual, and Constructive (LVC) Sensor Integration and Data Fusion for Operations and Training (SIDFOT) demonstration March 15, 2013, at a training and research facility called Calamityville in Fairborn, Ohio.

The LVC SIDFOT effort provides innovative research into the application of ad-hoc networks, integrated personnel, equipment, environmental sensors and mobile device applications for emergency response and combat search and rescue, data trustworthiness, gaming environments as training solutions, and human and data interoperability technologies.

The purpose of this demonstration was to conduct an initial evaluation of the utility of LVC SIDFOT approaches and technologies for Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) emergency response training and operations. During the training exercise, SIDFOT technology helped SWAT commanders view the geo-location of their personnel to gain greater situational awareness of their live assets, people, and possible threats. This is a particularly useful tool when teams are unfamiliar with the area or when teams are widely dispersed in unfamiliar terrain.

SIDFOT helped SWAT commanders execute their training mission by providing greater situational awareness of the chemical training scenario presented in the SIDFOT demonstration. With the SIDFOT capabilities, commanders and teams were able to rapidly deploy and reposition with improved awareness of the full process of the assault in real time.

As an example of training technology being evaluated, the SIDFOT network uses Android smart phones deployed in the field with the teams. The phones provide tracking capabilities through their organic GPS, so each SWAT team can be represented in the virtual environment as avatars and their positions and movement were displayed on a SIDFOT-developed C2 common picture interface for commanders. The SWAT commanders were able to observe their teams' locations in real time through an interactive Google Maps interface called SCOPE (SensorGrid Client for OPerational AwarEness), via deployed and stationary cameras in the training, and through a virtual representation of the training environment. This increased situational awareness and helped reduce the number of radio communications required to build the situational picture for both commanders and teams.

The SWAT teams also used the cell phones to send and receive pictures and locations of threats to increase the situational awareness of the commanders. The team used a thermal camera to identify "hot spots" or areas of concern, as well as an unmanned ground vehicle to identify potential chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats. Once the Unmanned Ground Vehicle-mounted sensor detected the simulated chemical, the SWAT commanders were able to push this information, along with a picture, to the individual teams on the field through the mobile applications integrated with SIDFOT technology.

RHA will review and refine the LVC SIDFOT effort based on lessons learned from the training exercise.

(This press release was written in conjunction with Ms. Kristen Barrera, 2nd Lt. Noah Schill, 2nd Lt. Sheri Lamb, and 2nd Lt. Megan Taylor of 711 HPW/RHA.)