Automated Generation of Underground Structures

Urban environments have become a central focus of military operations and thus of training. The military simulation community has put significant effort into the representation and visualization of buildings and urban clutter. Databases such as Baku and Caspian Sea and functionality like Ultra High Resolution Buildings (UHRBs) in OneSAF illustrate the great success of these efforts. Similarly, ARA’s Underground and Urban Model Generator (U2MG) makes it possible to automatically generate highly detailed and varying building models and urban clutter. Underground structures are a natural extension of urban terrain. While there is basic simulation support for underground structures in the UHRB specification and in some image generators, progress is hampered by a lack of source data and tools to support manual or automated generation of underground structures. This lack of data and tools has made underground data scarce in training databases. Examples include a few hand-placed tunnels in OneSAF’s Fort Hood database. With this proposal, Team Dignitas proposes to leverage existing technology to immediately provide detailed functionality in the area of automated underground structure generation. Team Dignitas will apply its unique qualifications to carry our functionality from the research and demonstration arena into practical application in Army programs through a Phase II SBIR award.