711 HPW chief scientist helps Junior Force "Meet the Warfighter" Published May 12, 2009 By Jay Marquart 711th Human Performance Wing WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE - -- As Chief Scientist of the 711th Human Performance Wing (711 HPW), Dr. Morley Stone is one busy man. Yet despite the hectic pace, he recognizes the importance of developing the Air Force leaders of tomorrow and has built time into his schedule to serve as the Senior Mentor for the 711 HPW's Junior Force Initiative Program (JFIP). The 711 HPW's JFIP is part of a larger initiative that began within the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) five years ago, aimed at force development. Regarding its Junior Force, the AFMC wanted to improve the satisfaction, training, Esprit de corps, leadership, and retention among the members of this group. A feature of the 711 HPW's JFIP is its Meet the Warfighter briefings in which presentations by veteran warfighters help the Wing's Junior Force understand how technological advances - often related to projects they are working on - are being applied in the field. One recent briefing not only taught the Junior Force about practical aspects of robotic design, it also allowed Dr. Stone to reconnect with a colleague, Colonel John Blitch, U.S. Army (retired). John Blitch is president of Blitz Solutions Inc., a consulting firm that leverages military technology, particularly robotics, to solve human response and emergency service challenges arising from disasters such as the World Trade Center attack and Hurricane Katrina. A graduate of West Point and a former member of the Special Forces, Colonel Blitch was a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he ran the Tactical Mobile Robots (TMR) program. His role transitioning rover and robot technology between NASA and the Department of Defense led to his induction in the Space Technology Hall of Fame in 2006. Dr. Stone met Colonel Blitch several years ago while the latter was at DARPA. "One day I got a call at RX [AFRL's Materials and Manufacturing Directorate]," Dr. Stone recalled. "A voice on the other end said, 'This is Colonel Blitch. I'm on the next plane out. Clear your schedule.' He came out and did a little indoctrination. We've been friends ever since and have worked on a variety of things." Colonel Blitch presented during the March 20, 2009 Meet the Warfighter briefing, held in Building 441's first-floor auditorium. His presentation began with what he termed "Blitch's Follies," adventures and misadventures from his operations experience that guided his thinking on TMR design. From here, he discussed "Techno Tragedies," situations where technology was ill suited to the application, leading to loss of life. One example of a techno tragedy, in Colonel Blitch's view, was the Oklahoma City bombing. The only robots available at the time were big and heavy, therefore useless for searching the confined spaces of the rubble pile to locate survivors. Colonel Blitch then shared design imperatives for successful TMR systems: small size, redundancy, tumble recovery (capable of continuing the mission if overturned), lost communications zone behavior (capable of reestablishing broken communications with human controllers), anti-handing and anti-tampering, multi-source positioning, complex obstacle negotiation, and self-maintenance capabilities. He concluded by discussing the potential of tactile systems, for example, gloves and vests, in TMR communication and control. Commenting on his presentation, Colonel Blitch said, "It's a pleasure for me to talk to people in the technical part of the world. Part of the motivation for doing this is the tremendous value in what comes out of here that is directed back to the strategic world." "Having these presentations orients our Junior Force with the warfighter," First Lieutenant Phil Maynard said of the JFIP Meet the Warfighter briefings. "They deposit ideas and help us start thinking about different things, familiarizing us with other skills." From his standpoint, Dr. Stone viewed Colonel Blitch's presentation as both an educational opportunity and a challenge: "A lot of people have been exploring this human-machine interface for robotics and ground-based robotic systems for a long time. What I would like to see is, can we make these lessons learned that we can apply to the air domain?" By investing himself as JFIP mentor and helping the Junior Force meet the warfighter, Dr. Stone makes it clear he believes the 711 HPW is up to this task.