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Situation awareness is
a fundamental requirement for effective military air traffic control.
Without adequate representation of the air space, controllers
are left to estimations and best judgment decision-making. Situation
awareness forms the basis for air controller decision-making and
performance. Equally essential to the success of the mission is
raining ground controllers to direct aircraft using situation
awareness displays. In support of the Swedish Air Force, ISD developed
a fighter controller simulator, TAST, for training of interceptor
ground controllers. The goal for TAST is the training of young
officers in the Swedish Air Force to control and lead fighter
airplanes in combat.
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By creating a module based
visualiztion system for TAST, IDS can use these displays
in other situation awareness applications.
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The Swedish Air Force has used TAST for over
two years to train controllers. However, as the training of interceptor
ground controllers is predominately about relationships between
airplanes and air volumes in 3D space, the existing 2D displays
are often ineffective as sole training aids. Using only 2D radar
displays, graphs, and other situation awareness displays, instructors
often find it hard to explain 3D air space relationships. Recognizing
that situation awareness displays are critical to the success
of the air traffic controller, ISD working with the Swedish defense
material administration (FMV) developed a prototype of a 3D situation
awareness display system, capable of attaching to the TAST simulator.
This new 3D air situation awareness display makes it possible
to visualize the entire 3D airspace and its contents in realtime.
The ISD ’s 3D air situation awareness display
enables interceptor ground controllers to be more effective by
enhancing the student’s ability to think in 3D.
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ISD’s 3D air situation
awareness display makes the training of interceptor ground
controllers more effective by enhancing the student’s
ability to think in 3D.
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The 3D air situation awareness
display makes it possible to visualize the entire 3D airspace
and its contents in realtime.
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The choice of VTree SDK allowed ISD’s
3D disply to immediately have realtime suport for large
area databases and data sets, industry standard formats,
and off-the-shelf peripheral devices.
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According to the Swedish Air Force instructors,
this new 3D situation awareness display will work as an effective
training tool to make the students aware of all kinds of 3D related
situations. Additionally, the 3D display will be used for after
action reviews. After an exercise the new 3D situation awareness
display can be used to review and analyze the results of the student’s
actions and to grade the student’s decisions.
This new display provides a way to bring
available 3D data to a controller system for the first time. The
3D display shows altitude relationships between airplanes, restricted
flights areas, and designated training areas in 3D environments,
providing better understanding of the events in a 3D space.
ISD defined several goals for this display. These included creating
a modular system, managing large amounts of data in the realtime
3D display, and the ability for expanding the capabilities of
the display to use additional information.
ISD initially developed a test application using
pure OpenGL commands. This proof-of-concept application encouraged
ISD to continue with the project and to investigate 3D Graphics
API to simplify the continued development. After exhausted research
ISD selected VTree SDK from Quantum3D, Inc. The choice of the
VTree SDK also allowed ISD’s 3D display to immediately have
realtime support for large area databases and data sets, industry
standard data formats, and off-the-shelf peripheral devices.
One of the hardest aspects to the project was
integrating the 3D display as a part of a larger, existing, realtime
system. VTree’s flexibility enabled ISD to create a module
that could be integrated into a larger system, such as the TAST.
Creating a separate module visualization system for TAST allows
ISD the ability to use this display in other situation awareness
applications.
By using VTree SDK, ISD considerably reduced the time it took
to complete the development of the 3D display system. The development
has been carried out on an O2 workstation with Irix 6.5 operating
system, 175 MHz processor and 128 MB memory. The application is
controlled by a set of GUIs and process communication is used
for interaction within the application. Currently, the 3D situation
awareness display is a prototype; however it is expected to be
added to the TAST system in the near future.
For more information on the 3D Situation Awareness
display, TAST, or ISD Data AB contact:
ISD Data AB
Attn: Ivar Ekström
Box 135, 182 12 DANDERYD, SWEDEN
Phone: +46-8-753 97 00
E-mail: ivar.ekstrom@isd.se
Learn more about how Quantum3D can optimize
your synthetic environment for training and simulation applications.
Visit our website at www.quantum3d.com; email us at salesinfo@quantum3d.com,
or call us at U.S. toll free 1-800-827-1980, or internationally
408-361-9999.
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