Interactive 3D Equipment Simulation Saves U.S. Army Engineer School $14-million (USD)

I/ITSEC 2009, Orlando FL

Canadian firm NGRAIN announced today at I/ITSEC that the US Army Engineer School at Fort Leonard Wood – which trains soldiers how to repair and overhaul construction equipment that supports ground missions – is achieving a $14-million (USD) savings each year by using interactive 3D equipment simulators. The savings has enabled the school to extend the curriculum to include training on new vehicle technology.

“With NGRAIN-enabled courseware in our classrooms, we are able to shave 12 hours off the 40-hour brake system training block,” explained Cecil Caldwell, Chief, Maintenance Training Division, Fort Leonard Wood, US Army. “With an annual training load of approximately 1,200 students, this one-and-a half day reduction in training time translates to more than $14-million in savings per year. We now apply this savings to deliver training for new vehicle technology, including wet brakes maintenance and repair.”

http://communities.canada.com/shareit/blogs/news/archive/2009/12/02/canadian-simulation-firm-saves-u-s-army-school-money.aspx

Game of the Show: Virtual Battlespace 2

Although it was first released in 2007, Virtual Battlespace 2 by Bohemia Interactive seems to be the gold standard for virtual training simulations. This is the project that is referenced most consistently across the various sessions at the I/ITSEC conference.

The nice thing about this clip is that the specific simulation features are named as you go through the video.

Given this is for the military, there's a lot of shooting going on in this clip, but there's also a good deal of general features that you'd want to see in any simulation creation engine.

IITSEC Training Simulation Conference - Day 0

A pre-conference pre-crowd shot from the Orlando IITSEC 2009 conference on training simulations.

The IITSEC 2009 schwag. Note the all-important Rockwell-Collins sponsored anti H1N1 hand sanitizer.

Complete Guide to Simulations and Serious Games

Check out the latest from Clark Aldrich, a great industry participant and thinker, "The Complete Guide to Simulations and Serious Games". This is a combination encyclopedia, style guide, and survival guide for those interested in deploying or developing simulations. Clark has a great ability to find and describe common patterns across the wide array of simulations that exist.

I/ITSEC Conference on Training Simulations

If you're able, be sure to check out the I/ITSEC conference on training simulations. This is the largest conference that focuses exclusively on simulations and training. The show includes panels and tutorials and is relevant for both purchasers and developers of simulators and simulation technology.

If you can't make I/ITSEC, there's also the Serious Games Summit at the Game Developers conferences in San Franciso starting March 9th, 2010.

Creating Low-poly Models for Your Simulation

This post shows the process involved in getting your raw high-poly 3D assets into a form that is ready for a real-time interactive simulation. It's important to understand that this process is necessary and to factor in development time accordingly.

As an example, we'll show a few production images of the F-22 being developed for an aircraft deicing training simulation being built in partnership with Global Ground Support.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/forgefx/

Custom Application Development and Sole Source Awards

The highly specialized nature of custom application development for training simulation software leads to strong partnerships and sole source awards. Global Ground Support's custom-developed simulator software has a function by function parity to their real-world equipment. This tight integration of hardware and software gives manufacturers who also offer associated simulation products a strong competitive advantage in the marketplace - no one else can offer software which so closely matches the manufacturers equipment.

According to Federal Business Opportunities:

NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD SOLE SOURCE: The 3rd Contracting Squadron, Elmendorf AFB, Alaska intends to award a sole source purchase order to Global Ground Support, LLC for the acquisition of a Global De-Icing Training Simulator required in support of the Elmendorf AFB Wing Flying mission. Global Ground Support is the only supplier of a de-icing simulator designed specifically for the de-icing vehicles used at Elmendorf AFB.

This purchase will be made under Simplified Acquisition Procedures and Other Than Full and Open Competition as authorized by FAR 13.501. The anticipated award date is 19 Aug 2009. Please note that this is not a request for competitive proposals. However, all interested parties who believe they can meet the requirements are invited to submit in writing complete information describing their ability to provide the product listed above. Deadline date for the submittals is 18 Aug 2009 at 4 pm Alaska Standard Time.