'The Way of the Future': Huntsville Center Safety Office, Army Game Studio unveil virtual reality game - DVIDS

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Employees participating successful a caller operation information people astatine the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville toured a operation site, identified information hazards and experienced the unsafe outcomes of information violations – each without leaving their classroom.

This real-world acquisition was made imaginable by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Safety Trainer 360, a virtual world operation tract crippled created by the Huntsville Center Safety Office and the Army Game Studio. The caller grooming instrumentality allows users to navigate a computer-simulated operation tract portion looking for and correcting imaginable hazards.

The crippled is the brainchild of Kyle Shireman, Huntsville Center information manager, who has been moving with developers astatine the Army Game Studio since 2021 to bring his imaginativeness to light. Like astir innovative ideas, his originated with a occupation that needed to beryllium solved.

“We don’t person galore operation sites adjacent to our office, and astir of the employees attending our information courses person ne'er been to one,” Shireman said. “But they volition yet beryllium connected the occupation astatine a operation site, and they request to cognize however to enactment safe. It’s hard to clasp the accusation successful these courses without really knowing what it looks like.”

The Safety Office needed a instrumentality that would let employees to acquisition a operation tract during the grooming process.

“I knew a small astir gaming, and I knew that VR is the mode of the future,” Shireman said. “Once I recovered retired that the Army Game Studio was doing this benignant of enactment present successful Huntsville, I knew we could make thing truly exciting.”

The Army Game Studio, located astatine the Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation and Missile Center’s Software, Simulation, Systems Engineering and Integration Directorate connected Redstone Arsenal, is simply a recognized person successful the improvement of virtual, interactive and multimedia systems for outreach, education, simulation and training. The studio, which includes 5 laboratories, a question seizure studio, a dependable workplace and an adept squad of programmers and designers, is champion known for America’s Army, the realistic video crippled that showcases the Army acquisition and is often utilized arsenic a recruitment tool.

Recently, the workplace has worked connected aggregate projects requiring virtual reality, which is increasing successful popularity due to the fact that of its inherent grooming value, said Daniel Kolenich, enforcement shaper of the USACE Safety Trainer 360.

“VR is the latest technology, but not everyone has started utilizing it,” helium said. “In this case, it worked perfectly to conscionable the needs of our customer.”

Using machine modeling and simulation, virtual world provides a realistic, three-dimensional situation that users tin research and interact with. A headset with goggles provides the show and dependable stimuli, and handheld controllers let the idiosyncratic to determination astir and marque selections.

“We’ve done respective virtual world games, but this 1 was unsocial successful that it was a existent place, truthful it progressive modeling an situation with circumstantial items similar cranes and ladders,” Kolenich said. “It was acold much realistic than what we usually do.”

Most VR games tally straight disconnected the headset, but Army Game Studio developers needed much powerfulness to make the astir realistic situation possible, truthful the USACE Safety Trainer 360 runs disconnected a high-performance laptop, said Thomas Morris, a systems technologist for Science Applications International Corporation who served arsenic a shaper connected this project. The headset — successful this case, a Meta Quest 2, formerly known arsenic an Oculus – is tethered to the laptop.

“The machine is what runs the game, not the Quest itself, truthful it’s overmuch higher successful graphics and provides a higher fidelity simulation that was needed for the operation environment,” Morris said. “It’s similar the quality betwixt a Fortnite quality and much realistic character.”

The high-quality graphics let users to spot captious details, specified arsenic a information statement connected the broadside of a ladder. Paying attraction to the tiny things is often what keeps radical harmless connected a operation site, Shireman said.

“While navigating the VR environment, radical are looking for each the imaginable hazards, and if they miss them, they acquisition the consequences -- for example, a clang for walking nether a suspended load, oregon an detonation from an unidentified electrical hazard,” helium said. “We are giving them a accidental to larn from their mistakes without really experiencing immoderate existent danger.”

Currently, the crippled is being utilized for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration 10-Hour Training Course, which is required for each employees successful a Quality Assurance relation and is urge for immoderate worker who visits contractor operation oregon attraction and work sites. The grooming provides an overview of QA information responsibilities and covers wide information topics specified arsenic workplace hazards, information civilization and idiosyncratic protective equipment.

The game, which is disposable to download for escaped for each Department of Defense agencies, tin beryllium modified to see further modules, said Kellie Williams, information main for Huntsville Center.

“We are hopeful that aft a twelvemonth of 2 of usage that further activities and hazards tin beryllium added to the game,” she said.