Logistics and Information Technology for Weapon System Acquisition and Support

As identified in the SBIR announcement, the DoD is moving toward implementation of electronic technical manuals to support aircraft maintenance. Electronic manuals, particularly those which include interactive features, offer significant advantages over traditional hard copy manuals. The current proposal seeks to enhance these advantages by incorporating features associated with the technology of immersed virtual reality. Such features include the capability of immersing a technician in a three-dimensional interactive world. By allowing a technician to view and navigate within a virtual world, more substantial information regarding the subject matter can be imparted. Use of the virtual reality option within a technical manual is expected to lead to a rapid as well as a more thorough understanding of the maintenance information. The proposed effort is to establish a feasibility demonstration of the proposed technique. The effort will include selection of a pertinent example manual, development of pertinent manual sections in the form of an interactive electronic technical manual, and the incorporation of software and hardware to provide virtual reality features. CASDE Corporation's experience in maintenance procedures and the development of electronic technical manuals will be supplemented by the services of Professor Steven Feiner, noted computer graphics and virtual reality consultant.