Virtual Shooter

The Phase I project seeks to develop a design basis for a firearm testing device which will provide a "virtual shooter" for the operation and measurement of handgun and ammunition performance. The reactions of real human shooters will be measured as a function of the specific firing action results of the test weapon on the human physiology. A six degree-of-freedom (6DOF) model will be developed based on and validated by the collected real-shooter reaction data. The model will also be calibrated to predict the reaction of real shooters to firing tests as a function of the various modeled physical shooter types. A Phase 1 option may be added to develop a complete design of the Virtual Shooter mechanical firing device. Under Phase II, a specific "virtual shooter" device will be constructed and tested. This device will permit firearms and ammunition testing in a highly quantitative manner while avoiding physical risks to human testers. Specific human reactions (recoil, accuracy, etc,) may by this means be directly related to firearm and ammunitions design parameters through the virtual shooter characteristics of the 6DOF test device. The initial TRL for model and device at project inception is estimated to be 3. At the end of Phase I, the TRL is estimated to be 6 for the model and 4 for the device, which will be designed, fabricated, developed, and tested under Phase II of the program to a final TRL of 6.