Filling the skill set gap
3D simulation technology sustaining Forces
Vancouver-based NGRAIN released the latest version of its flagship product during CANSEC. Producer 4.1, a software program that allows subject matter experts to embed knowledge into 3D simulations, has gained widespread acceptance from Canadian and US forces as a unique training and equipment maintenance support tool.
The Canadian company, which was recently named part of the CAE team providing in-service support to the C-130J program, also used the event to launch its new Virtual Task Refresher and Virtual Index applications. The first can help deployed personnel refresh knowledge acquired during classroom training while the second expedites access to equipment information and reference materials via interactive links on 3D equipment components.
Paul Lindahl, CEO, and Arnold van den Hoeven, Director of Canadian Defence and head of the company’s new Ottawa office, spoke with associate editor Chris Thatcher about the military’s challenges driving the demand for their products
What’s driving the use of this technology? You’ve spoken of the need to make everyone a generalist and deliver the specialists’ knowledge through technology. Is that problem more acute today?
Lindahl: There are several challenges for the military right now. One, with the operational tempo so high, stress on the training programs is very high. They have to move more students through quickly, with fewer people. There is also a shortage of skilled workers. There are a lot of people retiring. The challenge is effectively an HR challenge. So if you have fewer skilled people available to train the new recruits, how do you go about training them? That’s where 3D simulations come in. Taking something apart or locating a part is a spatial challenge; it is a 3D procedure in essence. And you’re seeing an explosion of 3D. Almost every movie in the theatres now is available in 3D. The technology has gotten to a point where it is usable by the masses.
There’s another challenge of equipment being fielded so quickly that the military overseas does not have time to bring people back for training. They are fielding equipment in Afghanistan that they‘ve never seen before. They have to train people not only on the operation of the equipment but on the repair and sustainment of it in the field. Again, that’s where you start using technology.
Our technology fills the skill set gap. One of its big advantages is that the people who use it aren’t graphics producers or software engineers. They are the people who actually work on the equipment. If you can use Word or PowerPoint, you would be able to learn Producer to create 3D simulations.
How is it being used in a theatre like Afghanistan?
Lindahl: One of the questions in the Manley Report was how do we and our allies extract ourselves from Afghanistan, but leaving behind Afghan security forces able to support themselves. We’ve got to train them. And it’s not just training them how to fight, but how to use and maintain the equipment that is going to be left behind. We did a contract with the U.S. army on a piece of equipment that they took to Afghanistan for the Afghans. We created a 3D simulation in written Dari. They came back to us because 60 percent [of their trainees] were illiterate, so we edited the animation with a Dari voice over throughout the procedures and re-deployed it. And all of a sudden the Afghans were easily trained. In fact, the expert doesn’t need to be there. It’s a way to help the security forces become self-sufficient.
Are there other applications?
Lindahl: On the Canadian side, the J3 engineers manage the Canadian landmine database. The Canadian Forces now own a large database that includes 3D landmine models using the NGRAIN interactive format. This is now being deployed to all the NATO countries, including Afghanistan to help identify and deal with IEDs and landmines.
van den Hoeven: The modality of discovering landmines is often brought to the attention of the CF and allies by the local populace and many times their description of them is greatly enhanced when they can look at this portable and point to the exact mine that they’ve discovered in their field. That use of the visual, which is the universal language, is really useful for the combat engineers.
Is this applicable for IEDs or do are they modified too quickly for any representation of them to be much use?
van den Hoeven: We’re doing some work with the CF on the IED side, for instance, the use and maintenance and deployment of remotely operated vehicles. There are elements of IEDs that are in the database, notably fuses and triggers, but the novel and different was that they get combined are quite dynamic and they’re handled in a more dynamic way – briefs and picture and what not.
Is this technology finding other uses?
van den Hoeven: In the last few years we’ve had in excess of 30 major projects/activities across the three [Canadian] services, ranging from the training applications, to operational uses on the bases, to headquarters functions in support of equipment. It’s actually been fairly broadly adopted. The air force has put in place a learning management system and many of our virtual task trainers are being used within this environment to provide access beyond the classroom to students’ barracks, to reservists at their home location.
Lindahl: The training or supporting of maintenance overseas is the operational side of the use of our technology. But it’s also used at home in the training environment, at schoolhouses. As a software company, you don’t always see everything your product gets used for. We were recently at Sheppard Air Force Base and they had taken our technology and brought it into the medical training for nurses and non-medical personnel. One application was for nurses on how to sterilize and layout instruments for physicians. Here in Canada, we’re working with the Canadian Army around medical training. We helped on the water purification system that went into Haiti. One of the projects was how to operate it and, if it broke, how to fix it.
Are you seeing a demand in other industry sectors?
Lindahl: Over the last few years, we designed our products to solve the military’s business and operational problems. And they were often problems around manufacturers’ equipment. Now our discussions are with the leading defence manufacturers. We’re working directly with Lockheed and Boeing and EADS. And of course they have the commercial sides of their business. We’ve also got some sales out of the oil and gas industry. They are converting equipment to NGRAIN to be able to communicate information about the equipment to the field.
Do these sectors have the same “generalist” problem?
Lindahl: One provincial hydro person told me it scares the hell out of him when he sees a rookie get in truck with his tools to repair a high-pressure valve and he’s going out with a manual. Anywhere you have equipment that has to be maintained, there is shrinking skilled work force; there are not enough people coming into the trade. We’re very active working with the universities. Lockheed Martin just donated a million dollars to the B.C. Institute of Technology to create a competency centre around our software – we donated software and the federal government just last week donated half a million dollars to it.
We’re seeing a convergence of simulation training and operations for soldiers. Is that also occurring for maintenance?
Lindahl: Absolutely. That’s a great question leading into the other product we announced, which is the Virtual Task Refresher (VTR). The Virtual Task Training (VTT) was a training product. But the other side of maintenance is communicating information at the point of need. So the convergence between the training side and the operations side is the reusability of the content from a schoolhouse through simulation in the field. We have something called a 3D knowledge object. It’s the geometry representing the equipment. You can pull it out of VTT and pop it into VTR with a memory stick.
It used to be paper manuals. Then the move was to Interactive and Electronic Training Manuals (IETMs) to support these activities in the field, but in its early use it effectively just digitized the paper. One of the projects we did on the Hercules with Standard Aero was renovated the IETMs by inserting 3D. So anything to do with procedures you can easily access. You can use the 3D object as a Virtual Index to go right part. Virtual Index, another of our products, allows you to have a virtual index of, say, a C-130J. If you need to replace the hydraulics on landing gear, it will drill down and you would see the animation of how to do that procedure.
van den Hoeven: With the CF, we’re completing some work with a partner company on the Dash 8, which is used for navigation training. They have produced a guide for changing the engines for a reserve squadron that operates the aircraft. They don’t always know who is going to be in and they don’t always have the luxury of time. So we’ve provided a virtual step-by-step guide to the engine change, taking it from a seven-day process to a two-day process, which is what it should be.
With the Advanced IETM we did for the C-130, an independent company hired by DND did a study in Trenton. They went to the flight lines, not the school, and took 40 technicians and split them into two groups of the same demographic make up and experience and gave half the advanced IETM; the other they instructed traditionally on how to perform a new procedure. They measured how long and accurate they performed on their first time through. The results were pretty impressive. They saw a 22% drop in the time it took them to accomplish the task when supported by the IETM, and they saw a 23% increase in first time accuracy. This supported with some hard facts what we’ve been saying about making the novice technician an expert.
Lindahl: For us the market is anywhere someone has to manipulate multiple components. That’s really where the value can be added. That is important to the military. One reason is operational readiness. If a piece of critical equipment goes down, a life could be at stake. The longer that piece is out of service, the more it could impact operations. If you get it wrong the first time, it’s down even longer. And the study found that technicians could perform tasks after six months equivalent to a six-year veteran, which fulfils the challenge of not having enough experienced people.
van den Hoeven: There is a whole set of mechanical skills that have generally faded in the average person. We don’t change the oil on our cars or tune up our lawn mowers. In the population of young mechanics, there is far less experience in those traditional areas. So the air force is finding a need for a lot of emphasis on the very basic elements of good mechanical skills and safety working around machinery.
Lindahl: Look at the profile of the person that needs to be trained. They are from the video game generation. If you give them that manual, their eyes are likely to glaze over. With our trainer you interact with the model and if you put in a part in the wrong order, it will let you know and make you do it again. And that’s how this generation learns.
