MetaVR Visuals in TUAV Embedded Visual System Trainer

Recently AAI Corporation, a subsidiary of United Industrial Corporation, purchased 19 additional MetaVR 3D visualization software licenses to provide the embedded 3D synthetic payload visualization system for training Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) operators for the Ground Control Stations (GCS) that are manufactured for the U.S. Army. AAI has purchased a total of 192 MetaVR Virtual Reality Scene Generator (VRSG) licenses since 2002 to support the Hunter, Shadow TUAV (Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), and most recently the Warrior Extended-Range Multi-Purpose (ERMP) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

	MetaVR's 3D models of Warrior ERMP, Hunter, and Shadow 200 UAVs. Click Zoom to see a high-resolution version of the image.

AAI was selected in late 1999 to provide the U.S. Army with brigade-level TUAV capabilities. Back in 2002, AAI purchased VRSG licenses initially for the GCS embedded trainer in the Shadow 200 program.

As part of the U.S. Army's ongoing Shadow TUAV program, AAI has developed and produced its One System GCS which also serves as the technological, operational, and intelligence-gathering heart of the Warrior ERMP and Hunter systems. The One System GCS complies with STANAG 4586, a NATO standardization agreement that enables various UAVs to share information through common ground stations, thus enhancing interoperability among allied military forces.

	AAI's TUAV ground control station shell is mounted on a humvee, which tows the Shadow UAV behind it on a launcher trailer as shown in the last image below.		A view inside AAI's Shadow 200 TUAV ground control station, showing VRSG simulating the Shadow camera payload.

The MetaVR software is also used to train UAS operators at the Institutional Mission Simulator used at the UAV schoolhouse at Ft. Huachuca, AZ. This facility consists of mockups of the actual GCS vehicles in a class room setting.

Simulation training in the classroom at Ft. Huachuca, AZ, on the Shadow TUAV Ground Control Station embedded trainer using VRSG.

Each TUAV system is comprised of three air vehicles, two ground control stations, two ground data terminals, a launcher, a tactical automatic landing system, and an aerial vehicle transport. (Source: http://www.auvsi.org/news/.)

The One System GCS is a critical component of the TUAV system; in normal operation, the GCS is used to control the flight of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and receive its telemetry. The GCSs are equipped with ruggedized Intel PCs running Microsoft Windows 2000 using game level nVidia-based graphics cards as an embedded training system. By using any one of a number of commercial off the shelf technology PC graphics cards that support the Microsoft DirectX standards, the resulting system has true hardware independence.

When the system operators are not flying the actual UAV, they can fly a simulated UAV using the same hardware they use to operate the real system -- using the JTC/SIL MUSE air vehicle and datalink simulation software and MetaVR's PC-based technology. Thus, an operator does not necessarily know whether the video feed is coming from a simulator or a real camera video feed.

Another view from inside a GCS.

The GCS PCs run a variety of software, including MetaVR's UAV technology, which provides the embedded visual system within the trainer for the TUAV. With the TUAV contract extension, MetaVR's software will be delivered on future TUAV ground control stations. For field operation use, the TUAV system would have a 3D visual terrain database loaded for the same area in which operators are physically present so that they would train on the same terrain that they would fly during real missions. This same system can provide real-time situational awareness of the live UAV by depicting it in a coincident virtual world.

The AAI TUAV is supported here by its launcher trailer. Notice the camera extending from the bottom of the aircraft, which supplies video feed to the ground control station shown in the images above. This is the camera view that VRSG simulates.

VRSG can be configured to simulate UAVs in a variety of ways. These configurations range from using VRSG's internal camera payload model in which the telemetry of the simulated UAV is provided by a DIS or HLA entity, to fully integrated applications such as the MUSE UAV tactical trainer. The Multiple Unified Simulation Environment (MUSE)/ Air Force Synthetic Environment for Reconnaissance and Surveillance (AFSERS) simulation system is the primary UAV training system used within the Department of Defense (DoD) for command- and staff-level training for the Joint Services. MetaVR is the primary supplier of training visual systems for the MUSE UAV program.

Other VRSG UAV simulation features include:

• Capturing high-resolution virtual world screen images remotely, in which VRSG can instruct the UAV camera to capture the current image in its field of view from remote operators in the simulation environment, save the image to a file, and deliver the file for display on another computer. This feature simulates the GlobalHawk large image sensor capability.
  
  
• Using VRSG as a simulated, live, virtual video feed from a UAV that is used to classify ground information from a Geographical Situational Display. Airborne or space-borne collection systems that use Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI) and target identification devices create symbolic representations of moving entities over large geographic areas. VRSG enables the operator to refine target identification and classification.
  
  
• Streaming real-time MPEG of UAV KLV metadata multiplexed into an MPEG2 transport stream. Tactical exploitation systems can use this streaming MPEG feed to visualize sensor payload imagery in real time and extract the UAV metadata. The metadata editor GV 3.0 is an example of a system that can decode VRSG's MPEG stream and embedded UAV metadata.