Advanced Virtual Environment Haptic Simulation

Virtual training environments are becoming increasingly important to the U.S. Army for training warfighters as the Army transitions to Objective Force. Training systems are providing more realistic battlefield contexts for the dismounted soldier, increasing soldier immersion and providing a better basis for transfer to operational systems. However, in support of better simulation, the incorporation of haptics has lagged behind the simulation of visual and auditory cues. Reasons for this include the difficulty of simulating tactile information, limitations in hardware and software supporting haptic systems (e.g. restricting movement of users), and the lack of research on how best to utilize haptics. The proposed work is intended to advance the utilization of haptic technologies in virtual training environments. Specifically, CHI Systems, Inc. proposes to team with the University of Central Florida's Institute for Simulation and Training (IST) to (a) provide recommendations for haptic technologies that can be used to support training in virtual environment (VE) training systems, and (b) provide a haptics system design. In Phase I we propose to analyze three high payoff training applications and identify haptics technologies that can be used to support training in these areas. The product will be a set of recommendations to be published as well as a haptic system design tailored to a specific training application and VE. In Phase II we propose to implement and evaluate the haptic system.