Geospatial Data Bolsters Virtual Training
Shortly after North Korea’s missile test launches this summer, a combination of geospatial data and advanced visualization technology produced a simulated image of the test site for use by analysts and trainers. The images, developed by the Computer Science Corp.’s Modeling and Simulation Center of Excellence in Huntsville, Ala., using data provided by DigitalGlobe, offered a vivid example of the growing use by CSC and other companies of geospatial information for training and simulation.
The process, which integrates geospatial data from companies such as Digital- Globe with elevation data and software animation, can produce models on a gigantic scale, according to Scott Allman, manager, virtual environments, for CSC.
“Not only can we build city blocks, but we also build country-size databases,” Allman said. “About a year ago, we built the entire nation of Iraq and all its major cities, so you can ‘drive’ via real time models from Kuwait City to Turkey. We also do projects on a smaller scale, for example for Homeland Security at the Warfighter Production Lab (WPL) at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville for Intergraph Corp.
“We develop super-realistic scenarios of Army installations, using imagery from various sources, including the NGA, to create terrain databases. Photo-realistic textures for key buildings on the facility are rendered from digital photos taken onsite. Building geometry is then extruded from the terrain model and the building textures are applied,” he explained.
“We build the databases and hand it over to the simulation side of operations, and they put it all together,” Allman continued. “The WPL uses these terrain databases to provide 3-D visualization for simulations developed to test readiness of Emergency Operations Center (EOC) personnel. Commanders and dispatchers in the EOC are provided a scripted scenario of events that play out in real-time allowing for dispatch and tracking of emergency response vehicles and assets. These vehicles are tracked through the terrain model and on the dispatcher’s display monitor simultaneously. The actions of the event commander and emergency response decision makers are recorded and a log file is maintained so the actions of the EOC personnel can be evaluated and reviewed.
“We are in a point in time where technology and skilled personnel have the ability to provide the warfighter with the most realistic training environment possible. We’re years past the point of having block buildings and flat landscapes. While we still create representative environments, the more realistic we can make them, the better the warfighter is going to do on the ground.
“If you build three city blocks of Baghdad, and you have the geospatial data, pictures from the ground, the GIS data and the technology to incorporate all of that, when the soldier gets on the ground, it needs to be as representational as possible,” he noted. “If you put a door on the side of the building, the soldier is trained for that. When he gets to the real environment, and the door is on the wrong side of the building, soldiers can get killed. This is precisely why realism, within data translation, is so vital towards the end product.
“Using geospatial information, satellite data and GIS data rapidly and realistically— that’s best for the warfighter,” Allman said. ♦
