An Integrated Optimization System for Lightening the Load of Warfighters

Warfighters are increasingly relying on technology equipment to ensure safety, mission effectiveness, and situational awareness. This equipment increases the capabilities of warfighters but also adds to their weight burden. This excess load could cause significant stress on the musculoskeletal system and lead to physiological deficits. The overall objective of the proposed project is to develop a system level optimization environment to design a squad for critical missions while automatically lightening the load on individual warfighters. The main focus of Phase I work is to determine the feasibility of integrating the various components to form an optimization system for tradeoff analysis between the weight and squad combat effectiveness. This optimization system is composed of four major modules, including rigid body dynamics that simulates the motion of equipment, dynamic motion prediction that simulates the motion of individual warfighter, equipment-distribution that considers various factors and an equipment database. The functionalities of these component modules will be defined first and then a comprehensive plan for the transfer of I/O between modules will be developed to ensure seamless integration. Finally, the prototype optimization environment will be demonstrated on selected missions for individual as well as squad.