Next generation of physical training environments: Bringing in sensor systems and virtual reality technologies

Abstract

Training on physical training ranges is immensely important to any military unit, as many aspects of individual and team skills still need to be trained there. Nevertheless, the overall cost of training on physical ranges, the required unit throughput, as well as a need to maximize the training potential that such precious environments have, are ever increasing, and leveraging emerging technologies to make the training more effective becomes a necessity. This paper reviews several novel efforts in the research domain that could be used as a guide to the types of emerging technical solutions that may be employed to augment the capabilities of physical training ranges, including the capabilities of humans engaged in orchestrating and executing the training events (range operators and instructors), and to support the global objective of acquiring more effective training solutions. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.