Cold Weather Injury Simulation System (CWISS)

The predominant approach the Department of Defense (DoD) has used for Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) training is to develop training that addresses specific injuries and courses of action in the most common environments, including extreme cold environment. When medical training is conducted in extremely cold environments, additional challenges arise with the delivery of care. As expected, there are also training device failures that may need to be addressed since most, if not all, of these training devices are not designed to operate in extreme cold.Ā Ā SIMETRI has developed a haptic PTT and moulage overlay that involved a focus of effort on material research that evaluated the properties and performance of the selected materials that will influence the final construction of prototypes. SIMETRI also developed a complementary Virtual Reality (VR) application, in which a trainee can speak directly with virtual soldiers exhibiting varying degrees of cold weather injuries and impairments while situated in appropriate virtual environments.ĀĀThese interactions are not pre-scripted and do not require a human-in-the-loop, rather the conversation is generated with real-time responses using an informed AI model. Ā During Phase II, SIMETRI proposes to create the Cold Weather Manikin (CWM), a modular manikin with targeted functionality that supports the current and future needs of medical training in extreme and austere environments. The CWM is a targeted fidelity manikin that is designed to perform basic medical functions or procedures while in an extreme cold weather environment. The CWM will replace the use of a low fidelity, non-interactive manikins that only provide the size/shape/weight of a patient and are best suited for procedures such as applying tourniquets or positioning limbs. The VR application will be enhanced as well, adding nonverbal cues, data analysis and learning management, custom voice profiles with affected speech, etc. The moulage overlay will be updated to incorporate more conditions at different stages of progression.